David Olsen - Lampworked glass sculpture

The artist practices the glass art of lampworking, the process of melting color and clear glass rods at approximately 2300 degrees at a torch to shape one-of-a-kind hand-sculpted pieces.

His figurative work is made with an ounce of humor, and a pound of practice. His leaves, curves of the human form, mermaids, fairies, seahorses alike weave in and out of space in a magical world.

His lifelong fascination is the pulling, bending, prodding and shaping the melting, softened glass while twisting and turning the changing colors in the torch’s bright flame.

As well as here at the Sandwich Glass Museum, the artist as over many years sold and exhibited at The New Bedford Open Studios, Artworks, Gallery X, The Newport Art Museum, and the Smithsonian Institute.

His mission is to pass on his knowledge of this technique to a younger generation, apprenticeship being the means of choice.