Can you drink beer from a glass shaped like a woman’s breast?

“Sure, naturally,” says the young glass artist, Anne K. Kalsgaard, a native of Aalborg. And that’s why some of the glasses in her elegant portfolio are inspired by the female attributes that men, especially, find so irresistible.

The glasses are actually pretty - and they draw a smile. And if, even for a moment, they take the user away from life’s daily routines as they sip a satisfying, hand-brewed beer, for instance, then at least part of Anne’s work is accomplished.

She works conscientiously to develop glasses that exude humour, extravagance and reflection. The style is classic, with smooth lines and some surprising detail that ensures the glass isn’t just “boringly classic.”

Everyone who visits Aalborg can now see the funny and the extravagant themselves, in the shop named Himmelfisk (“Skyfish”) on Boulevarden. Here, you can see and buy Anne’s glasses, along with other functional glass art like cups, bowls, carafes and vases. And then there are her glass sculptures, which will enrich the atmosphere of any room they appear in.

Something unique to take home

One advantage of buying hand-blown glass is being able to bring home something truly unique, according to Anne. The glasses may belong to particular series but, because they’re made by hand, each one is special in itself.

For Anne K. Kalsgaard, glass is the material with which she can express herself best. “Glass is full of paradoxes. Depending on how you handle it, you can create works of glass art that are transparent, slender, brittle as ice or compact as granite,” explains Anne, who has always had “something or other” about glass. “My mother says that when I was six years old, I saw a glass blower in Skagen and said: That’s what I want to be!”

And so she did. After her completing her general studies at Katedralskolen in Aalborg, Anne moved to England to learn about glass at the Internal Glass Centre at Brierly Hill. From there, her studies took her to Bornholm, where in 2004 she received her diploma from the island’s renowned glass and ceramic academy. She has recently returned from Iceland where she worked with one of that country’s best-known glass artists, Sigrun Einarsdottir.

In the near future, Anne. K. Kalsgaard plans to travel and seek out glass artists in countries like South Africa and the USA. Her long-term goal is to open her own workshop and studio somewhere in Denmark.
We hope she settles on her hometown of Aalborg.