The United Nations named 2022 the International Year of Glass. With exhibitions and events taking place in the real, breathing life again, it’s an exciting time for glass artists and connoisseurs. 

Glass & Movement was also the focus of our latest Cluster Crafts Fair in July this year. One of our exhibitors was Baiba Dzenite, a glass artist from Latvia and the founder of BAIBA GLASS. Her signature technique is blown glass, and many of her versatile pieces are already in private collections.

We recently caught up with Baiba to learn more about how she discovered her passion for glass, her upcoming events, and how she feels about being part of Cluster. Here’s what she shared.

You often say that nature fascinates you. Do you remember the moment when you thought, I want to be an artist that captures the essence of nature through glass?

It happened naturally, but the turning point was when I was 16. I went to an open doors event at Riga Design and Art School, and I saw glass and the sun reflecting off it. It was magical. So I decided to study glass, and more than 16 years later, I’m still into it. That’s more than half of my life already! 

Working with glass was a step-by-step journey which started in 2004. I knew that with this material, you need to focus more, learn a lot of techniques, and that’s why I never got bored – I was discovering new things all the time.

I chose to focus on blown glass after I visited several famous glass factories in the Czech Republic. It was fascinating, and I felt like nothing else was worth doing with glass for me. I went on to learn the technique at the Art Academy of Latvia and did an Erasmus traineeship in Lithuania.

Tell us about your upcoming events and exhibitions. When and where can we see your art this year?

I will participate in The Venice Glass Week, part of The Italian Glass Weeks, at the end of September, 17th-25th.

On October 7th-9th, I will take part in EDIT Napoli, a design fair, for the first time. I will show my new lighting object and some of my Calm collection vases.

In the middle of October, I will join the European Glass Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. The focus will be Baltic arts related to glass. There will be group exhibitions, but they also selected one new artist from each country to do a solo exhibition. I will represent Latvia.

Finally, at the end of October, I’m invited to the North Lands Creative studio in Scotland for a one-month artist residency. It will be the best moment to create something new and develop ideas for which I don’t have much time now.

The exhibition is inspired by the myth about the goddess Venus but also the planet Venus, so I will mix the two to create one dreamy, cosmic world. There will be a central piece which was shown in the Milano Vetro - 35 competition which will travel to Venice. It’s a strong object, lying on its side like a sleeping Venus. That’s where the title ‘Venus Dream’ comes from – from all the processes happening in Venus’s imagination – and each piece will represent a dream.  

Some of the objects are already in private collections, so my solo exhibition will be an opportunity for more people to see them. 

At this, Baiba shows us one of the pieces that will be part of the exhibition. A smooth glass ball with a flat bottom and an underlayer of iridescent green, orange and yellow colours, speckled with golden bubbles.

This is a ‘Venus Globe’. The colour was hard to make because I had to mix three or four powders, and you can never guarantee how they will react together. The little bubbles inside catch the sunlight and shine in gold.

You have been part of the Cluster family for a few years. What have you enjoyed the most about it so far?

I have enjoyed a lot of things, thanks to Cluster. For one, I visited London for the first time, and my art reached a new audience! 

Cluster found me through Instagram after an exhibition I did in Venice in 2019. I was invited to a Cluster Crafts Fair, but then Covid came and put a pause on all events. We met for the first time last October, after a year of Zoom calls. We exchanged ideas about how to go about the exhibitions, if they should be digital and all that. In 2020, Cluster Crafts developed a Book and an Online Fair, but glass needs to be enjoyed in real life so one can appreciate its true transparency. That’s why I’m happy we’re back to physical exhibitions.

Finally, which is your favourite piece you have created so far? 

My Calm collection is my favourite. That is my first collection, created in 2016-17 when I started experimenting with one special tool, an antique Latvian heckling comb, which is a linen-craft tool. It’s become my signature instrument, and it always travels with me to symposiums and glass festivals around the world. 

From Italy to Poland, there will be plenty of opportunities to witness the magic of Baiba Dzenite’s glass art live this autumn, one of the highlights undoubtedly being her solo exhibition ‘Venus Dream’ in Wroclaw. Baiba’s 16+ years of designer experience and use of signature tools and techniques have earned her international recognition – and we are proud to have her in our Cluster family of creative forces!