Silvered glass has it’s own magic. We have met with it in many forms for more than 150 years. It has transformed with time from the elegant vases of urban salons, to thermoses, garden ornaments, statues and pilgrims‘ bowls all the way to contemporary designs and the free creations of today’s creators. Artists are fascinated by silver surfaces, how they reflect the distorted reality of the inner world, and the possibile fantasy worlds inspired by a silver shine. For the play of light, silver opens unmatchable possibilities. Mainly in the last decade silvered glass has made a comeback and shown that its potential is far from exhausted.
The exhibition presents silver glass from the past, current designs, and the open creations of artists.
Klára – sklářská huť, s.r.o.
North of Novy Bor, at the base of the Luzicky Mountains, lies the traditional glass community of Polevsko. Although slightly overshadowed by the neighboring center of Czech glassmaking, it is actually historic Polevsko that helped create the worldwide reputation of the Novy Bor region.
It was here in 1907 that Karl Mühlbauer founded the Klára glassworks. Silvered glass (also known as Mercury Glass), a specialty of Klára glassworks, is double-walled glassware with a silver coating inside the walls. Candlesticks, bowls, vases and various other decorative objects were made from this sparkling metallic glass.
Besides crystal, the glassworks currently produces a broad palette of colored glass, including opal glass. The company’s specialty remains traditional silver glass produced with the latest technology. The glassworks assortment encompasses traditional glass raw materials as well as a wide scale of originally designed finished goods.
The effort of a new owner is to increase the visibility of the glassworks and its unique silver glass products on the domestic and international markets also through cooperation with the famous Czech designers Olgoj Chorchoj, Rony Plesl and Mimolimit
The delicate beauty of silvered glass exhibition
22. 11. 2007 - 29. 2. 2008
Glass Arts gallery, České Budějovice
Search the website www.klarapolevsko.cz.
text: sklárny květná
