Simple and Timeless

Pulled from the furnace at 1200°C, the glass glows orange, like a ball of flame. In the stinging heat of her studio, glass artisan Yoko Andersson Yamano works with glass in liquid form. Aiming to create “solid glass that has a liquid feel,” she blows her works the old-fashioned way, not using molds.

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Since the glass is molten hot, she cannot touch the work directly and relies on tools to express her ideas. Using wooden ladles called “blocks,” arm guards, special tongs called “jacks,” and dampened paper, she forms the glass into all kinds of different shapes. As she works, she takes pains to preserve the movements of the glass itself.

“By making one part chunky, you can draw attention to the nature of the medium. Thicker portions hold the light. It feels more like an object. If you set it by the window, it catches or reflects the sunlight in a different way. Light is a big part of our material enjoyment of a thing. You might call glass a way of holding light and texture.”

Yamano says that she only makes functional glassware. Most of her work is inspired by human behavior, from the general to the personal.

“I get ideas from watching people use things. We all hold objects and manipulate the world around us in completely different ways. In that sense, the tableware I make is often a reflection of somebody’s personality.”

Living with her partner and their son in Stockholm, Yamano values family time and personal time equally. On days off, she likes to go on trips or spend hours cooking meals. Her favorite pastime, though, is writing letters.

“Letter writing is full of surprises. I might get a response from someone I forgot I even wrote to, or they might answer on their phone. And some letters never arrive. Maybe what I love about the time I spend alone is finding ways to interact with others. Alone time is relative, right? It’s something that you only need to set aside when you don’t live alone.”

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Yamano is busily preparing for a traveling exhibition opening next year in Japan. Collaborating with artists from around the world, she’s creating tableware based on glass they say they’d like to paint. The artists will then use her work as a motif for paintings, to be exhibited alongside her glassware. The process hints at Yamano’s exchange of letters with her friends.

“Most of my work goes to restaurants and bars. An item’s features depend on the way it’s going to be used. What’s funny is I might start thinking about how to make a wine glass and then realize that I’ve never made one before.”

Yamano says that if she looks at paintings in a museum, her eyes go straight for any glasswork. “Some paintings are an accurate depiction of the times, while others have glasswork that is physically impossible.” These observations made her curious about the ways glass can be preserved within a painting. For her collaboration, artists wrote descriptions of the kind of glass they wanted to paint, on the condition that it must be a transparent piece of tableware. It’s fun to think of how her work might differ from their descriptions, or how the painters will interpret the objects she creates.

“I’m really excited about the collaborative aspect. One person’s description could be interpreted as all kinds of different sizes and shapes. But if they’re asking for a wine glass, it’ll be a glass that holds the wine so you can drink it.”

Yamano finds joy and beauty in connection and the changes it creates. Tools for life...embodying a simple, beautiful functionality. This is the source of her knack for seeing things we overlook, a unique vision that carries over into her organic work.