The AO Glass Team
AO Glass is a glass blowing facility in the South End of Burlington with an incredible group of employees working both behind the scenes and in front of the furnaces.
Headed up by founders Rich Artezen and Tove Ohlander, the team of glass blowers ("gaffers") and assistants at AO use the same fundamental glass blowing techniques that have been around for more than 2,000 years. They have an innate technical understanding of molten glass properties, its possibilities, and its limitations.
Stop by and you'll meet our team and see them at work. They come from around the U.S., Scandinavia, and Africa. They play great music and have great attitudes because they love their craft!
Our space includes our retail and hot shops, which are open to the public, and our cold-working suite and a shipping and fulfillment center further inside our facility.
The team on the glassblowing floor is experienced in free-blowing, mold-blowing, casting, stamping, and pressing, as well as the golden rule around the hot shop: not getting burned. Some have formal training and have been making glass for decades, and some have arrived here from completely different backgrounds and trained with us. Despite their varied histories, the glassblowers and assistants at AO are all unique and talented craftspeople.
The team on the coldworking floor is devoted to perfection in skills like cutting, drilling, polishing and sandblasting. It takes an exact eye to perform the tasks to finish the designs for lighting components, bottle stoppers, and bar-ware created in the hot shop.
