Nina Nørgaard is a Copenhagen based artist and designer working with glass. After studying mouth blown and sculpted glass with masters in Paris, Venice and San Francisco, she graduated from Kosta School of Glass in Sweden in 2010. Nina Nørgaard works with commissioned and personal projects world wide.

What’s your dream?

My dream is to balance work life and being a good mother and wife as an independent artist and business owner. I dream of creating a good and healthy life and staying true to my dreams.

We moved away from the city in May last year – to pursue a dream (initially my husband's) of establishing a vineyard in the hills of Odsherred. We also built a studio at home where I can work and create pieces, contributing to the vineyard with glassware. It’s a big project because there's so much work to be done – but I've learned to appreciate every step of the way. It's amazing to see everything starting to bloom now – Winter was also beautiful with enough snow for skiing. I'm so grateful I trusted Joachim's dream of leaving the city to build this paradise.

How do you dream of contributing to the world?

I hope I will still keep inspiring the next generation to learn a craft and to follow their dreams. Remembering that good things take time and patience. Another aspect is to show the world that it's better to buy less but of good quality – I know my pieces are expensive for many people, but if you take good care of them, you can have them for generations. 

I recycle and save everything, giving them new life in other projects – glass is very expensive to produce and the world is lacking in sand, so being aware of the precious material glass is, and making pieces that are beautiful, functional, and not copies of all the pieces already made, is really important for me as an artist and a designer.

What do you think the world needs more of? And less of?

Good, honest design, inspiring art, well-made, excellent craft – where you can see and feel the time it takes for a piece to be made and the skills and dedication involved. Too much low-quality work that looks the same as the pieces in the shop next door is being produced every day.

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Share your thought on the theme “Dare to dream” 

I am a dreamer by nature – I dreamed of working with glass since I was 5. I wanted to create glass pieces for restaurant Noma in 2012 (they became my first client). Additionally, in 2017, I had the opportunity to visit Los Angeles after being invited by a world-famous actress who showed me around and gave me business in the states. Then, I dreamed that glass should be something the younger generation would put on their wish list alongside a bag – today, I have many young customers. I believe you should dare to dream big if you want to make a living working with glass. It's hard, expensive, and warm. Few people work with glass because of that. But for me, there is so much life, beauty, and possibilities that I never get bored. When I was contacted by Byredo for a piece, I also seized the chance to meet up with Ben Gorham, which resulted in a successful sold-out byproduct design in 2021.

For example, when I created the knobs for a private client in 2019, I never thought I would still be making them today. I’m happy and honored that Reform has a version in their atelier collection that won the Design of the Year award in 2023.

I have many stories, and I'm not like everyone else, as my family would say. My bonus son once said, "On your stone, it should say, 'everything is possible.'" I'm impulsive, I take risks, I have the most wonderful family that always supports me, and the best colleagues and collaborators without whom I couldn't have done it. But I never gamble with money.

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