[1]She goes to her studio every day, irrespective of weekday or weekend. Residing in hot, muggy Kolkata, standing in front of a furnace in her studio and constantly working is not easy. But passion is her biggest driving force. Srila Mookherjee loves to create masterpieces by blowing glass.
“I do not have pre-determined designs in my mind and neither do I draw them on paper. As I progress, my ideas fall in place. To me it is all about spontaneous creativity,” explains Srila. About 100 glassworks of her, in all shapes and sizes are on display at an exhibition ‘Embellished Glass’ at Art Heritage gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam. She has the distinction of being India’s first woman glass-blower. It was a family vacation in Italy that changed it all. She saw Venetian glass blowers display their prowess and was enthralled by it.
“Glass as a material is malleable but only when it’s hot. After cooling it, I work on the surface of a few pieces; for instance I use the technique of sandblasting. I also use vark (silver foil) for embellishments which is wrapped onto the object while shaping it. Then there are works made of glass treated with chemicals,” she adds.
The exhibition is on till September 21
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/tab4jpg-032