Inspiration

My paternal grandmother was a very keen knitter. I grew up watching her knitting jumpers, and I wore them everyday in winter.

On the day I left home to continue my glass study in England, she was also knitting just as usual. We have lived in distance for these several years, but I can see her knitting absolutely everyday with the eyes of my heart. It forms an abiding scenery throughout my life, and the wool yarn is like a ‘story teller’, which connects every different episode over time and tells one story.

In the winter of 2008, when I was studying for my MA, I came up with the momentous idea to ‘knit’ glass lines into three-dimensional shapes. Thus, my early works Childhood (2008), Memory Pot 1 & 2 (2008) were born.

Initially, I was lampworking with 3mm factory-made glass canes, but soon I realised that the work might become more interesting if the glass line itself becomes more expressive. Thus, my quest for expressive lines started.

The brush strokes in calligraphy caught my eyes. Calligraphy demonstrates a creative synergy between line and context, and every brush stroke is eloquent by itself. I thought it would be beautiful if I make three-dimensional brush strokes with my lampworked glass. The idea of combining lampworking and calligraphy was firstly amalgamated into the work Ghost (2009).