Sonja Blomdahl (born 1952) is an American glass artist known for her use of the Venetian glass incalmo technique to create blown glass vessels. Her work brings together multiple elements into symmetrical forms, often using contrasting colors and both opaque and transparent glass. Based in Seattle, Washington, she established her studio in 1983 and has been associated with the studio glass movement.
Early life and education Sonja Blomdahl was born in 1952 in Waltham, Massachusetts. She began glassmaking as an undergraduate student during the 1970s. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics from Massachusetts College of Art (Boston) in 1974. There she studied with glass sculptor Dan Dailey. In 1976, she spent six months studying at the Orrefors glassworks in Sweden. Her work has been associated with Scandinavian design, and she later learned the incalmo (double-bubble) technique from Venetian glassmaker Checco Ongaro.
Career
Blomdahl served as a teaching assistant to Dan Dailey at Pilchuck Glass School in 1978, where she first observed the incalmo technique. She has also taught at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, and the Appalachian Center in Tennessee. She established her own studio in Seattle in 1983, which remained in operation until 2009. Since the late 2000s, her work has expanded beyond symmetrical vessels to include architectural forms.
Artistic style
Blomdahl uses the Venetian incalmo technique, in which separately blown glass elements are joined while hot to form a single vessel. Her work typically combines bands of contrasting colors and integrates both opaque and transparent glass to explore color relationships and the effects of light.
Public collections Selected public collections holding works by Sonja Blomdahl Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Awards and honors 1986: NEA Visual Arts Fellowship Grant 1987: Artists' Trust Fellowship Grant, Washington State 2001: U.S. Department of State gift to the Prime Minister of Sweden
See also Dale Chihuly Studio glass
References
External links Sonja Blomdahl - official website
Further reading Biskeborn, Susan. Artists at Work: Twenty-Five Northwest Glassmakers, Ceramists, and Jewelers. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Books, 1990. Bullock, Margaret E., and Rock Hushka. Best of the Northwest: Selected Works from Tacoma Art Museum. Tacoma: Tacoma Art Museum, 2012. Della, James. Glass, the James Della Collection. [San Francisco]: James Della, 2012. Koplos, Janet. "Matters of Mood: The Glass of Sonja Blomdahl." Glass, no. 59 (Spring 1995): 34-41.