Written and translated by Ole Victor

Ariel is a Swedish technique to control the shape and positioning of air bubbles in blown glass for decoration.

This technique is quite complicated, difficult and time consuming. It is conducted in three steps – blank, decoration and shaping. Ariel needs a highly qualified master blower to perform several critical moments demanding talent and experience, e.g. the wrapping of an overlay post.

The cold second step is time consuming but not time critical, which allows for non hot glass experiensed artists to apply their Ariel compositions to glass. In this step the surface of the blank is deeply cut, engraved or sandblasted.

There are several varieties of Ariel and some tricks and shortcuts to get an almost similar result. These are described in the documentation.

Ariel as a decorating technique is closely related to Graal, from which it originates technically as well as culturally.

Ariel was developed by artists Edvin Öhrström and Vicke Lindstrand in close cooperation with master blower Gustav Bergqvist at Orrefors in 1936.