My relationship with glass didn’t begin through formal training. I studied Industrial Design and later completed a Master’s in Contextual Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2022 — disciplines that encouraged experimentation and allowed me to move freely between digital tools, material research, and physical craft. I never set out to become a glass artist. Glass entered my practice very slowly and quietly.
My first encounters with the material were in 2018. I had an idea for a project and began reaching out to glass artists in Germany to help bring it to life. At that time, working with glass felt out of reach — mysterious, technically demanding, and difficult to access as a beginner. It wasn’t something I could shape myself or wanted to. That shifted when a laboratory glass worker encouraged me to try melting a rod on my own. He didn’t make it intimidating — instead, he made it sound almost simple. He told me to go to the nearest hardware store and buy a small gas burner, the kind you would use to caramelize crème brûlée. It will melt the glass slowly enough that I can learn its behaviour. So I bought one. That little burner was not powerful, but it gave me access to the material. It gave me a way into glass.
From there, glass became something I practiced quietly and consistently. For years I worked at home, melting rods into small forms, mostly jewelry-sized — loops, links, tiny experiments through which I slowly started thinking about the kind of wearable glass jewelry and objects I would want to sculpt.
Glass wasn’t a sudden decision, it was a slow pull eventually becoming the foundation of CLARASWEARS, my ongoing exploration of glass in jewelry and studio work.
