Frozen Landscapes

One-of-a-kind designs come from fresh and imaginative glasswork.

It’s called Jackdaw Glass, an odd name for a glassblowing company until you remember that the crow-like jackdaw is attracted to shiny objects, and the signature work for glassblower Adam Noga is a shiny glass pendant.

He makes his quarter-sized pendants by super-heating clear and colored glass rods to a molten state, and then carefully mixing and manipulating them until the design is what he wants. “The result is a one-of-a-kind landscape inside the body of the piece that becomes ‘frozen’ in place once the glass cools,” Noga says.

The pendant is 100 percent borosilicate glass; no paints or stains are used. By changing the oxygen level of the flame he uses, Noga can create a whole spectrum of hues from just one color.

Noga, a Newmarket resident, says he creates only pendants because they give him the freedom with design he’s looking for. You can find his work at the Cordwainer Gallery of Fine Crafts in Bedford and at the Kalled Gallery in Wolfeboro, or by visiting www.jackdawglass.com.
~Barbara Coles