The local legend is that Ola Höglund left Kosta Boda because of creative differences; nowadays their web and printed material are more polite about the beginnings.The premise used to have many shed-like buildings and we could go around looking at Ola (and his apprentices) blowing glass, or visit the art glass shop, the "seconds" shop, the gift shop (which, among other things, carried Gotland sheep fleeces), eat at the cafe (we used to go late on Saturdays to have passion fruit cheesecakes), or have a picnic in the garden.
Then they got involved with making official gifts for the Sydney Olympics and the two America's Cup yacht races in Auckland; they opened shops in Auckland, Sydney and Tokyo and a studio in Australia; they built this big shop/entrance, and closed off the rest of the premise; now you pay NZ$15 to see glassblowing and I'm not sure what happened to the cafe or the garden or whatever else that stand beyond the really tall walls. And of course no photography anywhere; I had to get permission to shoot this.
They have beautiful pieces; their wares are given as state gifts by NZ prime ministers. Good on them for working so very hard and being so successful; too bad for many locals that we can't go spend a leisurely weekend afternoon at Hogland any more.
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4 Mates:
it's peculiar but glass ware is not normally associated with New Zealand... in Canada we typically associate N.Z. with sheep.
Good thing that Christine Boswijk isn't so precious.
AND her works are gifted by the government.
AND she was awarded the NZ Order of Merit.
That's too bad that there are no exceptions or special passes for the locals. Maybe you should throw them an idea for this? After all, with more locals they'd probably invite some sales too.
Piika, anything can happen in New Zealand art-wise. Many people come here and find the inner artists in themselves, I think.
JB, Her work is exquisite. I miss the Cafe, though; I used to love feeling like a tourist while I escaped for one hour from my job at the ex-Polytech.
Merisi, not a bad idea, that!
Thanks for visiting, everybody.
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