They chose the name Esque as a reference to the outside influences that can be seen in their work. They headed west and settled in Portland. Once they struck up a friendship, they realized that they wanted their own studio where they could work on what they wanted. That’s where she met Parker, who was teaching glassblowing at the time. Before she knew it, she got a job working as a glassblowing assistant. She could design a piece on one day and then hold it in her hand the next. She loved the immediacy of glass blowing. ![]() She figured it would be a good skill to have and ended up taking the course. As a student at New York University studying fine art in the 1990s, she saw a glassblowing class at Parsons School of Design. Kovel got into glassblowing almost by accident. “I mean it’s just got so many amazing properties and we want our work to be all about celebrating that.”Īndi Kovel forms and shapes a piece of glass that will eventually become a wine decanter. “It’s this amazing gooey fluid, sticky oozy material when it’s hot and soft and then when it’s cooled and hard, the way it captures light, holds light, reflects light, refracts it thick and thin,” Kovel said. When the glass melts, it has the consistency of honey, which allows them to manipulate the glass into whatever shape they need. The main electric furnace is a giant cylinder with only a small door for them to open and retrieve the glass. On the other, three giant lit furnaces keep the space warm while they work. On one side are finished products stacked, ready to be shipped to their clients. Walk around their workspace and you could imagine it almost as an art gallery. We want you to touch it, we want you to hold it, we want you to use it,” Kovel said. “We can take a lot of the pieces and put them in a gallery and say they’re fine art pieces, but we really love the idea of our glass being handled. The marriage of form and function is at the heart of every piece that Kovel and Parker make in their studio. “You would never stop the glass at that part if you’re a technical glass blower … And really love messing with that.”Ī wine decanter with a skull imbedded inside, created by Andi Kovel and Justin Parker create at Esque Studio in North Portland.įor 20 years, Kovel and Parker have created intricate glass art pieces for a wide range of clients like Andee Hess, owner of Osmose Design and the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland and the W Hotel in Seattle, while keeping true to their artistic roots. “There’s a lot of techniques where you get from point A to B, and it’s 10 steps, and I might stop it in the fifth step and be like, ‘That looks really cool,’” Kovel said. But the fun for Kovel and Parker comes from exploring how those techniques can be changed, and the ending results. Traditional glass blowing relies on specific techniques learned through years of practice. Once the decanter was formed to their liking, Nic Speed, Kovel’s nephew and assistant, took the final product and put it into a kiln to keep warm and finish the process.Įsque’s skull wine decanter is just one of many pieces they have made that reflect the duo’s creativity and willingness to stand out. ![]() “And what’s really cool about it is, you fill it with red wine and as the wine goes down the skull kind of emerges. “Justin makes this solid sculpted gold skull and we’ll put that piece inside the decanter,” Kovel said. To truly make it their own, Parker added one final detail. The bubble soon became a wine decanter, but that was not enough. Communication was constant, as Parker stretched and pulled at the molten glass, while Kovel provided the necessary air to expand the bubble. On one recent piece, one person shaped a bubble and the other blew air into the tube. ![]() After a few seconds, they pull the tubes out, revealing a small glob of molten glass, still bright orange from the heat, ready to be formed and shaped into whatever piece of art they want.Īndi Kovel and Justin Parker put finishing touches on their latest art piece, while Nic Speed watches. The artists poke and prod long metal tubes into a large furnace, which can get as hot as 2,000 degrees. I’m very aware of the history that’s come before, and I’m also very interested in pushing the medium into the future,” Kovel said. “We really want to create pieces that express a different way of seeing glass.
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