Installation at the Glass Museum, 2020
“Dark red glass is revered as very rare. It is costly to produce and extremely difficult to make in the chemical melting process. Historically, glass factories around the world have been very secretive about how to produce ruby red glass and what the ingredients are to make it. Gold is one of them. Hence, the name Gold Ruby, which is sometimes used. A fanciful legend holds that gold ruby glass was first discovered when a noble tossed a gold coin into a mixture of molten glass. Selenium is another ingredient, and the toxic cadmium is also frequently used in red glass enamels. Rejmyre Glasbruk has among other types of design gained a reputation for its use of the three significant colours ruby red, emerald green and sapphire blue in the production of everyday wares and art pieces.” – Stine Bidstrup
In this installation a pair of spectacles with brilliant-cut ruby glass ’lenses’ were placed in the Glass Museum for the visitors to put on and see the museum and all its objects through a red, faceted haze, and to see the red ruby glass itself in all its splendour.