Glass artist Svend Holst-Pedersen has made the village of Rø near Helligdomsklipperne his base for the past twenty years. He is close to the elements: the sea, the rocks, the harsh landscapes and the profusion of colours in the fields. He is familiar with most of the island’s out-of-the-way places, and many of the works created in his Rø workshop are particularly inspired by Bornholm’s scenic landscapes.
Svend casts one-off works of glass art in sand moulds in a process where textures and materials are crucial to both the process and the results. Svend’s creations are identifiable by their wide variety of textures and impressions in the glass, all of which are well-considered and motivated by his curiosity for the material and its inherent possibilities. An idea quickly takes shape and comes to life in Svend’s workshop, and he sells his works, big and small, in his little gallery situated near Svaneke’s charming waterfront. Svend is very fond of meeting his customers, and he shares with them about the thoughts and stories behind his various glass art creations. The process from working up the molten glass in the workshop to the encounter with customers in the shop constitutes the driving force behind Svend Holst-Pedersen’s craft art.
Svend Holst-Pedersen was born and grew up on Bornholm. He was one of the first students to attend the then Bornholm School of Glass and Ceramics in Nexø, where he soon discovered the object of his passion. After three months of on-the-job training with and mentoring by Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien, his fascination with the sand-casting of glass was confirmed. Bornholm is paramount to his craft art. Its scenic splendour and the artistic community of many craft artists on Bornholm are unique and infuse Svend with a natural desire to continue exploring the potential of glass.
Old tree trunks, bark, rocks, plants, water – he regards all these elements as possible shapes and colours that can be expressed in the glass, creating the diversity and potential expressions in the glass surface of the finished product. The entire process – from the initial toying with materials and colours through until the hot, molten glass is poured into the sand mould – requires unwavering focus and imposes rigorous demands on the glass artist’s abilities. After a controlled cooling and annealing process, a glass sculpture can be removed from the annealing kiln. No part of a process can be skipped: time is a crucial prerequisite. It is an essential component, and it is notably this continuous meticulousness and sense of detail that distinctly define Svend’s fascinating works of glass art.