Omori by Peter Ivy

custom-blended grey-tinted glass
2.25" x 1.5" x 1.5"

Peter Ivy was born in Austin Texas, first working on cars and as a carpenter after high school, before auditing a single glassblowing class, at the Rhode Island School of Design, which began his life pursuit of mastering the craft. Ivy eventually relocated to Japan to teach glassblowing in 2002, establishing his studio in 2007 in the rural town of Aoyama, where he continues to work.

Calling glass, as a material, “the closest to nothingness,” being both “hidden” and “familiar,” Ivy’s work mixes archetypal functional objects with the specificity of the exclusively “blue and black” tinted glass he uses. Created by Ivy as a signature compositional element of his work, the molten glass he blows originates from the powder of recycled incandescent light bulbs.

Ivy’s approach to handmade glass follows the most traditional historical approaches to the craft, with his studio functioning as an atelier, where he works with a group of seven apprentices. He named his studio the Flow Lab, with the word “flow” referencing the choreographic nature of glassblowing, which requires multiple people to coordinate actions to create a single object. His use of the word “lab” references a more modern mindset about pushing the limits of technical ability within traditional skill, subsequently enabling his studio to expand its repertoire of forms.