“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”
-Norman Maclean
Lasso and I in our favorite place, on a small stream in the Rocky Mountains
My name is Martin Gerdin. I have been blowing and sculpting soft glass since 2008, and it has shaped who I am today. Molten glass is a very seductive material, flowing and moving as if it has a mind of its own. Making each piece is an extremely personal experience due to the nature of the medium. Each time I gather glass out of the furnace, the piece and I are connected through the tools and blowpipes in a magical dance of heat and color. Being an avid fly fisherman, I love recreating the amazing life forms that populate the rivers of the Rocky Mountains in glass. Growing up in the Colorado wilderness nurtured a love of the outdoors, and I take a lot of inspiration from the shapes and colors that surround me still today. The colors I use in my work come from minerals and metals dissolved into the glass through complex light physics and chemistry. I teach glass to high school students, and it is so meaningful to share my love of glass with the next generation.