DISTINCTIVE BLOWN and  SCULPTED GLASS

Steffen’s artistic career began in 1983 when he left his hometown of Berlin, Germany to move to France. Inspired by the architecture of Paris and the landscape of southern France, he began to explore his talent as a woodcarver and sculptor. Steffen started
working with glass in 2015 while living in Maui, Hawaii. Through assisting in the shop of Evan Schauss, he quickly realized that glass was the next step in his artistic career.

In 2017, Steffen moved to Santa Fe to pursue his glass work full-time.
After more than 25 years as a painter and sculptor, he now finds himself blowing and sculpting glass. While never expecting to work in glass, it has been the next step in a natural evolution. Steffen’s fascination with organic colors, textures and shapes has
provided the perfect outlet to create work that transcends his new medium.

To arrive at an organic result, Steffen must go through an organic process. Between heat, gravity, and centrifugal force, glass takes on a life of its own and as the artist, he ends up collaborating with the material, rather than trying to dictate an outcome.

“When working with glass, I am approaching color from a painter’s viewpoint. However, colored glass does not blend and mix in the way that oils or acrylics do. Through a lot of experimentation, I developed a process based on colored glass that has been ground to a powder size. Layering these powders and heating and cooling them in
specific ways allows me to create these unique, distinctive finishes.”