Blown Away

Australian glass art at Effervescence

If you’ve ever stopped in your tracks to pick a kaleidoscopic piece of glass or a shiny stone, then pencil in a date with the Hoglund glass art collection at Effervescence.

The wooden ramp at Effervescence’s entrance transports you into a surreal world dedicated to the art of hand-blown glass. Masterpieces created by a New Zealand-based Swedish couple Ola Hoglund and Marie Simberg-Hoglund have found patrons the world over, including Elton John and Bill Clinton. Allow your senses to be overwhelmed by the whirling vistas of colour and illusory depths.

The current Rainforest Gaal collection is an ode to nature captured in glass. Created in their private ‘jungle studio’ in Port Douglas, Australia, bordering on the Daintree World Heritage National Park, it’s easy to understand the inspiration. You’ll love the exotically named vases like Voile, Eclipse and Lunar. Psychedelic platters, exquisite penguins, ethereal bottles and swirls suspended in glass in the form of pendants vie for attention with the plasma screen, which shows the masters at work. Every breath the Hoglunds take will leave you breathless.

Their perfume bottle, celebrating sunlight glinting on a green sea, nearly sent our Trendy Beauty Spotter fishing for her credit card.

Fragile yet inspired. It’s beauty frozen in time.