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Artist Name: Peter Viesnik
The New Zealand studio glass movement was in its infancy and the public was just beginning its infatuation with the medium when Peter Viesnik started blowing glass in Albany. A year later he and Peter Raos established the Hot Glass Company at Devonport, in a partnership that lasted for ten years. Peter now uses the Italian technique of murrini - the decorative, jewel-like 'buttons' of multi-coloured glass which became a favoured decorative device in glass art, as well as the art of creative flameworking. Flameworking was simple, quiet, clean and meditive in contrast to blowing glass, and Viesnik enjoyed being part of a tradition that dated back to Egyptian times. He made intricated beads, murrinis and tiny objects like fish. The diverse processes nourished each other, and soon the delicate flamework details were integrated into his blown glass.Viesnik makes a range of blown work that includes vases, stoppered bottles, paperweights and bowls. However, he is best known for his loose, flamboyant goblets which are designed to exhibit the qualities of the molten glass. Sometimes looped canes intersect the goblet or wrap around the stem or bowl. His love for colour is expressed at times in the restraint of a single colour threaded through the canes, as well in wild blushes of variegated colour 'smudged' through the bowl. The placement of the loops often pushes the pieces into asymmetric balance and vulnerability - that is part of their appeal. Viesnik often enjoys giving them individual personalities, and the most dynamic pieces are exuberant and fluid, often organic in form. One can visualise the dance of their creation.
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