Nobuko Soda　曽田伸子

The first encounter was at the glass workshop when I started working on glass. I saw the glass that contained sepia colored bubbles and wondered what it was. I learned that it was brass. After several years of experimenting I was able to create those mysterious “bubbles” freely. When the brass which is a mixture of copper and zinc is boiled, they create bubbles when combined with glass at the melting point. Soda was so fascinated that she continued pursuing work combining the two. Although the method using brass into glass is known, the details are not clearly defined. For this reason, Soda laughs and says, “I’m probably the only one who is persistent trying to work on it”. One of her works she is well-known for is the “Bubble series” where brass is confined in the glass. The “Rust series” was created from her curiosity to find out what would happen if she attached it on the surface. It was created from many experiments. Perhaps this curiosity comes from the days when she was a science major experimenting with optical fiber as a student.

The glass is created through several steps and specialized equipment. These include a melting furnace, tempering kiln, cooling kiln, polish machine. In front of the furnace at 1200C, the glassmaker takes the melted glass around the tip of the rod, breaths air in it and then bakes it again in the kiln. This process is repeated several times. It’s all about the timing when it comes to the glass especially it is very sensitive to temperature change and everything is done by hand. Soda constantly works in front of the kiln which sometimes causes low temperature burns. For the “Rust Series”, thin wired brass is placed on the surface of the reasonably big size glass ball and put in the kiln to melt. What happens next is the melted brass boils on the surface and fuses into the glass. When breathing further into it, the melted brass widens and spreads throughout the surface, then the oxidized black brass creates mysterious patterns which looks something similar to lunar crater. Soda makes the work seem easy, however, there were many trials until getting to this point. This surface series was one of the most difficult to produce, especially trying to reproduce the patterns 360 degrees. It is only recently that the work this size can be created.

The “Rust series” with the brass on the surface raises many pros and cons. Some say because glass is transparent and beautiful, to create the opposite of what is, “is wrong and should be re-conceived”. However, Soda kept creating it hoping that if there is a person who dislikes it, there will also be a person who will like it. Soda also likes vintage things and she gets inspiration from antiques to vintage bottles. Soda feels this series is important since it projects what she wants to create in purely form. Soda also likes music and replaces her creator self as a musician form. There are great vocalist, skilled guitarist and others, who are not so technical but a people with own view of world who perform and have a core of fans. While Soda says as a musician she wants to be like the latter one. I felt the soul of rock in her, a person who is not defined by popularity or status.