Swedish sculptor and glass artist Edvin Öhrström worked two months per year at Orrefors Glasbruk from 1932 through 1957 where, with fellow artists Gustav Bergkvist and Vicke Lindstrand, he developed the Ariel glass technique. It was stumbled upon, as so many great inventions are, by accident: while encasing engraved, colored glass they noticed air bubbles trapped in the crevices of the design which gave the piece a fresh, unique appearance. The Ariel technique was born, its name inspired by the god of wind in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It consists of a colored layer of glass encased in a clear layer, upon which a design was engraved, etched, or (in later years) sandblasted. The pieces were then enclosed again with clear glass, reheated, and blown to their final forms.
