MUSES >>> ELIŠKA

Eliška Monsportová is a glass designer and I know her for such a long time. We have met at Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague. Our common journey had already started at school and then naturally followed on several project for Eska, Designblok installation and so on.  Eliška is my dear friend and inspiring soul. 

Let's start easily :) If you were a tree which one it would be? And where would you grow?

 Exactly that tree I'm standing next to in the picture. A beautiful pine tree rooted in the rock. The view i would have! I could watch the clouds and the mist rolling down to the valley. I'd be curved and weather-beated just like this beauty. 

  

To be completely honest, I am not sure which I should choose or which is my favourite actually. It's very hard to choose just one, I love them all... :D but if I really have to, it would probably be the engraved Tattooed vase, where everything centres around the engraving. The process of engraving is my own sort of meditation, patience practice, a world where my weird flowers come alive. And if you add light and shadows to the mix...I'm undone.

 

I’ve noticed you spend a lot of time outside the city. Can you tell me what enchants you about mountains?

Literally everything. It's the lungs full of fresh and cool air, the slight tingling sensation, the scenery observing, sunrises and sunsets or the mist rolling down the hills. It's in the details of rocks, textures and plants. But primarily, I know it's the feeling of belonging and coexistence with the landscape. I'm fascinated by the feeling of smallness and by being reminded that you really are just a part of this bigger picture and it's inspiring to watch how the rest of the whole behaves...how they function... and what nature has created and how perfect it is. 

 

 

 Your connection to the nature..tell me where did it come from? 

In my childhood I presume, because we spent most of our time in nature. Our parents would teach us how to behave in nature, how to cherish it and be respectful. I guess that's where the fascination begun, and it has been deepening with every trip and hike ever since. A trip to Pyrenees mountains has been a great milestone for me, to which I'm actually returning to this year. Also, Canadian forests that look like drawn from the Alice in Wonderland book.

 

  

Describe how your glassmaking process looks like? Are you one of those with very precise strategy or the mess floats all around? 

An organised chaos, that's how I would describe it :) I am trying to establish order in everything I do but I always get to an unhinged phase of total mess during the process. It is there that things with soul and narrative are born. I always make room for accidents and improvisation, for experiments and playfulness. These are the aspects I combine with the clear thought out vision and work process. Many things I can do myself, and that makes me the labourer or craftsman for the most part if you will. In other cases, I tend to work with specialists in the necessary fields. Every product stays in my mind for a long period of time before I see a clearer picture and that order I was telling you about. Only then there's a place for chaos again :)

 

 

What do you like about clothes we made for you? 

I feel more feminine and alive and sort of playful, colourful - literally - wearing your pieces and I'm enjoying that. The clothes are wonderfully fitting and that's something to say with my hight and lean frame. 

I am learning to wear colours with TRK clothing and dare to be more playful, less serious, actually. I take it as way of mental support.