I approach the job just fine. And I enjoy it
Download image
Ivan Kubela was born on 17 March 1963 in Nový Bor into a glassmaking family. He is a graduate of the local secondary glass school and has been working in his craft since 1978. He started in the Crystalex and Egermann glassworks, formerly known as Hantich, where he worked with the legendary glass artist René Roubíček. His connection with the world-famous architect and designer Bořek Šípek, with whom he collaborated for more than 25 years, became absolutely essential. He first realized Bořek Šípek’s designs together with glassmakers Petr Novotný and Libor Fafala at the Ajeto Lindava glassworks. In 2009, together with Bořek Šípek, he opened the Anežka glassworks in Nový Bor, which he continued to run after the famous glass designer’s death in 2016. After a pandemic of covid, when he himself became seriously ill, and after the subsequent accident, he stopped blowing glass in 2021 and became a production consultant for the glass company Lasvit. He gained experience in many internships abroad. In Pilchuck, USA, he helped as an assistant to glassmaker Petr Novotný in teaching glass forming courses. Some of his commissions took place in Japan or France. At an exhibition in Nový Bor in 2023, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, he presented his own glass works and art glass by designer Bořek Šípek. Standing out among them were the theatrical Thalia, the Millennium vase, created for the turn of the millennium, and the Ungraspable (Neuchopitelná) vase, designed by former Czech president Václav Havel. In 2024, Ivan Kubela and his wife Iveta lived in Nový Bor. We were able to record the story thanks to the financial support of Lasvit.
