Eiko Emori, RCA

“Pâte de verre is a very cumbersome process. I try to commune with those ancient craftsmen who toiled away at their craft, gathering sand and chemicals, sculpting vessels with wax, building plaster moulds, losing wax, charging glass powder, heating the charged moulds with wood fire and then removing the plaster after they cool down. With great sympathy, I have seen a glass bottle from ancient Egypt where the craftsman had got tired of scraping out the plaster from the interior of the vessel and left it in place.

“It is no wonder the technique was completely abandoned for 1900 years. It took too much time and effort. Then, when it was revived in France in the early 1900s, the artists did not see fit to leave records of how they accomplished their wondrous work.

“Fascinated with the earlier works, I decided to invent my own method in pâte de verre, combining different techniques. Even with the help of electricity, computerized thermostat and purchasing of glass powder over vast distances, the process is still very time-consuming and cumbersome.”

Eiko Emori has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University, New Haven, USA. She has also studied at the Académie Grand Chaumière, Paris FRA and the National Diploma in Design, Central School of Arts & Crafts, London UK.

She has been inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Society of Graphic Designers of Canada and is a recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Individual Craft Project Grant, 2010.