For Rike Scholle, it began with an exhibition of the work of American artist Dale Chihuly. “I hadn’t encountered blown glass sculptures before” she explains. “It immediately sparked something, ideas began formulating. I was in a different career then, anxious to discover if I could acquire the skills. It took a few years before my first classes in glassblowing. Then I was hooked.”

Working with 1200-degree Celsius globules of glass, Scholle twists sinuous natural forms – myriad component pieces that are then arranged into expansive statements that take a life of their own when complete.

Inspired by the “motor of life”, permanent change and the perception of flora growing outwards, Scholle explains: “The flow I get in when I make multiple pieces – it is like a dance”, a necessary attenuation when working with such potentially fragile medium, “when it feels like I’m in the right vibration, the glass will come along. And if I try something too hard, I will probably fail.”

In stylistic contrast to Scholle’s hot-worked natal explosions of life, Eduard Deubzer works with glass on an altogether different plane.

Specialising in the cutting of glass, precision comes hand in hand with feel. Expounding on what is special about the medium to him, he explains: “glass can be completely weight- and bodiless – it transmits, bundles and refracts light.”

Taking the simple form of a dome of glass, Deubzer ennobles the surfaces, grinding patterns and applying varying sheen methodically, often by ear as the grinding apparatus and glass “sing”.

Despite working in the same space with the same medium, Scholle & Deubzer have currently only collaborated on three pieces, with Deubzer’s facet work and polishes adding additional dynamism to Scholle’s twisting flumes. By their own admission, the most luxurious pieces, these collaborations – ICEFLOWER, POW WOW and WILD – are just the beginning.

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