Baltic Sea Glass, Gudhjem

Glass on the Edge of the Baltic

Baltic Sea Glass sits on the granite coastline just outside Gudhjem, with the Baltic Sea never far from view. The low, modern building opens onto the surrounding fields and rocky shore, so as you step inside you still sense the island landscape that inspires so much of the work here. Sunlight pours through large windows and glints off ranks of hand‑blown glass, filling the space with soft reflections and shifting color. This is one of Bornholm’s best‑known glass studios, a place where functional design and fine craft are treated as equals. The atmosphere is calm but purposeful: shelves carefully arranged, workbenches set with tools, and the faint scent of warm kiln bricks in the air.

A Working Hot Shop in Full View

At the heart of Baltic Sea Glass is the hot shop, where molten glass is gathered from the furnace and transformed in real time. From a raised seating area or viewing space, you can watch glassblowers turn, blow, and shape glowing gathers with practiced precision. Pipes spin, wooden molds hiss with steam, and shears snip clean lines into soft, orange glass. The process is deliberately open to visitors. You see how a simple bubble becomes a wineglass or vase, how colors are layered, and how timing and teamwork keep the material from slumping or cracking. Even short sessions give a deeper appreciation of why each finished piece carries subtle variations and why no two objects are ever quite the same.

Designs Rooted in Bornholm Nature

The collection on display reflects decades of working with local motifs. Many series take direct cues from Bornholm’s environment: patterns reminiscent of ripening corn in the fields behind the workshop, pale tones echoing winter snow, or undulating lines that suggest waves on a grey Baltic sea. Other pieces explore clean, Scandinavian forms, focusing on proportion, clarity, and how light plays through thick or thin glass. Everyday objects such as drinking glasses, carafes, and bowls share space with larger, one‑of‑a‑kind works. The more sculptural pieces often show experimental textures or unusual color combinations, giving a sense of the studio as both a design house and a place of ongoing artistic research.

Browsing the Gallery and Choosing a Piece

The gallery is spacious enough to wander slowly, picking up glasses to feel their weight or holding a vase to the window to see how it transforms the light. Some shelves are dedicated to full tableware series, making it easy to imagine a matching set on a dining table, while others highlight limited or unique works that function more as stand‑alone art pieces. Price points range from small, accessible items to significant collector’s pieces. Staff are used to helping visitors understand the differences between series, explaining how certain shapes pour better, which designs pack more safely for travel, or how to care for the glass at home. Even if you do not buy, the gallery itself works as an exhibition of contemporary Danish glass art.

An Island Institution Since 1981

Established in 1981 by glassmakers Maibritt Jönsson and Pete Hunner, Baltic Sea Glass has grown from a single studio into a name represented in galleries and museums far beyond Bornholm. Yet it remains rooted in its original setting, drawing on the island’s light, seasons, and slow pace of life. Over the years, the studio has introduced many different collections, held special events, and produced one‑off works that now sit in private and public collections. Visiting today, you step into that ongoing story: a working atelier that has helped define Bornholm as a destination for glass and ceramics, and a place where the island’s landscape is still being translated into carefully crafted, luminous objects.