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Elin Isaksson: glass designer and maker

Contemporary designs brought to life using traditional glass blowing techniques.

About Elin

Elin Isaksson is originally from Sweden. She discovered her passion for blown glass during her studies at Orrefors Glass School, Sweden from 1998 to 2000. During those years she also undertook several placements in hot glass studios in Sweden and France.

Elin came to Edinburgh College of Art in 2001, following a year spent assisting three glass blowers in Gothenburg. She completed both her BA (Hons) and her Masters in Glass and Architectural Glass Design at ECA. During this time she also worked with Lindean Mills Glass, Galashiels.

She set up her business as a professional Designer and Glassmaker in 2006. Since then she has established her own glass blowing studio in Alloa, with funding from the Scottish Arts Council and Clackmannanshire Council. Now she creates bespoke, handcrafted sculptural, lighting and architectural glass for individual and corporate clients by commission and also sells sculptural glass through galleries and shops around the UK.

Elin’s vision

Elin takes her inspiration from the play of light, texture and movement in nature. Glass reflects atmospheres and emotions: ‘Making glass is a way of accessing a world increasingly excluded from our every day life,’ she explains. Her work is both sculptural and organic, the objects are not necessarily creating a descriptive picture of nature, but the elastic, tactile abstraction it represents.

Inspired but not bound by traditional methods, Elin combines glass making techniques to suit the particular artistic expression she wants to achieve. Her work brings glass to life, giving it movement and texture that symbolises the energy produced when working with molten glass.

Passionate about passing on the techniques of the ancient art of glass blowing, Elin aims to raise awareness of handmade glass and its traditions by providing glass makers, students and others with an opportunity to experience and learn at her new studio.