Merel Karhof

role

Designer

No items found.

Location

The Netherlands

Merel Karhof creates poetic objects and installations in which craftsmanship and material are explored in an innovative and sustainable way. Her work has been exhibited in international institutions and museums. The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (USA) acquired a “harvest” from her renowned Wind Knitting Machine, and her Tanning Laboratory is part of the permanent collection of the Zuiderzeemuseum. Earlier this year, the National Glass Museum presented her solo exhibition Bubbled Matter.

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Bubbled Matter

Exhibition

2025 Basic Instinct: Making-With

Images

Ruud Balk

Video

thanks

Blaauw Kilns & Furnaces

Creative Industries Fund NL

Stichting Stokroos

Cultuurfonds

In the project Bubbled Matter, Merel Karhof captures the invisible element of air in glass, making a single breath visible. By sealing air bubbles airtight, she seems to defy the natural laws of glassblowing. By combining glassblowing with slumping (a process in which the glass softens just enough to deform without fully melting), the bubbles expand further instead of collapsing or bursting. The coffee tables and objects reveal the artistic and experimental process Karhof undertook with experienced glassblowers. Additionally, her practice explores environmentally conscious ways of working with glass, such as slumping in the world’s first hydrogen-powered kiln.

Breath captured and glass tamed