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Negotiating Form With Glass

  • Milena Kling
  • Berlin, Germany
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The Bio

Working at the intersection of design, research, and material experimentation, Milena Kling transforms the ancient craft of glassblowing into a contemporary language of delicacy and depth. Drawing from memory, nature, and an ongoing dialogue with the material, her practice is rooted in process-driven exploration.

With a background in architecture and product design, she approaches glass as a process designer—developing new techniques, embracing unpredictability, and allowing material intelligence to guide form. Each piece, whether object or installation, is conceived as an atmospheric presence, shaped by light, colour, and reflection, and attuned to the subtle energy it brings into a space.

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The Products
  • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Silver XL
    • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Silver XL
    • 2.140 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
  • Standing Mirror Sculpture Silver Standing Mirror Sculpture Silver
    • Standing Mirror Sculpture Silver
    • 2.300 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
  • Ocean Mirror Sculpture Smoke Topaz M Ocean Mirror Sculpture Smoke Topaz M
    • Ocean Mirror Sculpture Smoke Topaz M
    • 1.070 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
  • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture
    • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture
    • 2.140 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
  • Ocean Mirror Sculpture Silver Medium Ocean Mirror Sculpture Silver Medium
    • Ocean Mirror Sculpture Silver Medium
    • 1.150 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
  • Ocean Mirror Sculpture Silver Ocean Mirror Sculpture Silver
    • Ocean Mirror Sculpture Silver
    • 1.150 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
  • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Olivin Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Olivin
    • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Olivin
    • 1.150 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
  • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Silver Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Silver
    • Contemporary Mirror Sculpture Silver
    • 2.145 EUR
    • Milena Kling
    • ex. VAT
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The Conversation

You have a background in architecture and product design, and you fell in love with glass while living and working in Japan. Could you tell us more about that experience and how it shaped your artistic direction?

Architecture taught me about atmosphere and space — how materials, light, and proportion shape an experience rather than just an object. It was a discipline of structure and context, of creating environments that hold emotion. Living and working in Japan opened another dimension. There I learned about creating from within — about intuition, rhythm, and presence. Design was less about control and more about awareness; about sensing the quiet dialogue between nature, time, and material. That experience profoundly shaped how I approach glass today. I became fascinated by how light moves through matter, how transparency and reflection can evoke stillness, and how a process can be as meaningful as the final form. Glass, to me, became a way of translating atmosphere into object — a medium through which the intangible can be felt.

When did you start your own practice, and how has your approach to working with glass evolved since then?

I Moved into my Studio here in 2020 and founded my practice in Berlin in 2012 by accident, when my diploma collection was published and first customers were interested in my objects, This was the initiation for me and created space to explore glass. From the beginning, my work was about exploration. My first edition in glass was a research into the tradition of glassblowing and how to translate it into contemporary objects that tell a story of creation, of the history and alchemy of the material itself. Over time, my approach has deepened and widened. The dialogue between concept, craft, and material has grown, opening new layers of understanding and expression with every new collection we create. I continue to work through collaboration and experimentation, observing how glass responds to movement, heat, and natural matter and how traditional techniques can be transformed to create contemporary objects that celebrate glass as responsive material.

Could you tell us more about the process behind your glass objects — how do they come to life, from concept to finished work?

The objects begin as an observation, of a traditional technique in the hotshop, a process I witness or a special detail and atmosphere I like to explore. I sketch, create moodbords of art and natural constellations I find inspiring and often write down words and the initial impulse I like to follow, but once I enter the hotshop, the process takes over. Working closely with glassblowers, I gather the molten glass and layer pigments, minerals, or sand to create depth and texture. The forms are shaped through breath and heat — each one unique, guided by the rhythm of the process and the response of the material. After cooling, they are ground, polished, or mirrored by hand, revealing inner landscapes that can’t be planned, small universes of reflection, distortion, and light. Each object carries the memory of its creation, a frozen moment of transformation.

You’ve said, “I love working with glass because you never really know how the final piece will look.” Working with glass seems to require a certain acceptance of unpredictability of letting go of control. Could you share a bit more about that aspect of your creative process?

Glass is alive. It remembers every movement, every shift in temperature, every breath of air. No matter how precisely you plan, it will respond in its own way. I’ve learned to see that unpredictability as a form of collaboration. Letting go of control creates space for something new to appear, a subtle distortion, a shimmer of colour, a captured bubble of air. These moments of chance are often where the most honest beauty resides. Working with glass teaches humility and trust. It invites me to stay present, to respond rather than to force. The process becomes a meditation on transformation, on allowing what wants to emerge, rather than holding on to what I imagined.