Xp Bonaire Feature Story
On December 4th, 2021, Valerie and Jeff Wolf opened MoltenWolf Glass, a store, gallery and workshop filled with beautiful art pieces, jewelry, functional and décor pieces - all made out of glass.
Valerie and Jeff’s first visit to Bonaire was on their Honeymoon in 1995. Ever since they have remained frequent visitors to the island, scuba diving and windsurfing until they decided to make Bonaire their home. Valerie and Jeff, both US citizens, became Bonaire residents in 2019.
MoltenWolf Glass is a concept that has been evolving for the last 10 years. Valerie and Jeff started their glass journey in 2007. At the time, Valerie was expressing her artistic flair by making bead jewelry and decided to learn how to create the beads for her jewelry rather than just buy them. When a glass bead flameworking class was offered, Jeff’s reaction was, “I will join you, after all it would be fun to work with fire and molten glass!”. Over the years they have traveled to see many glass artists; taken many classes in glass techniques, styles and design; and have learned many different ways that glass can be manipulated. Over the next 10 years, they expanded their skills and developed their own style, creating glass art under the name MoltenWolf Glass.
Even though the couple consciously decided to share a passion in glass art, their art pieces are completely different, reflections of their personalities.
Valerie
Valerie has been expressing herself through arts and crafts for most of her adult life. When she discovered glass art, it opened up a whole new world to her. Valerie prefers to make items that are functional and beautiful. She uses many different techniques in her glass art that she has learned over the years. She draws inspiration from other art that she sees in books, museums and at live events.
Jeff
Jeff is an accountant and finance guy by trade. His entire professional career has been about creating order out of the chaos that organizations can create in their accounting. In discovering glass art, he started out in the same fashion. All of his pieces were about creating order, straight lines, and symmetry. As his knowledge and experience with glass grew, he discovered that glass has a very unique way of moving and fell in love with this movement of glass. Many of Jeff’s designs now focus on the movement of glass, fire, water, and other elements that have natural beauty in their movement.
Jeff loves the natural world and draws a lot of his inspiration from the plants, animals, landscape and elements. Jeff is an avid scuba diver and you may see him around the island on his Ryker motor cycle. Jeff loves to interact with people. So, if you are in the shop, do not be afraid to ask questions. He will happily talk about anything you want to know.
MoltenWolf Glass
Being both artists and art enthusiasts, they noticed, after moving to Bonaire, that there are only a few places where people can go to see art and decided that they wanted to help foster some type of artistic community related to glass art on Bonaire. Opening MoltenWolf Glass allows them to show, and hopefully sell, some of their glass art, but also showcase other glass artists on the island.
Valerie and Jeff want to create a more open and sharing artistic community and help develop more local artistic talent into the world of glass.
You can visit the shop 5 days a week, Monday to Friday and stroll through the gallery and talk to the owners, who with great joy will explain to you how the pieces are crafted and designed.
Valerie and Jeff have their home studio and also a workshop in the store gallery where you can see the process of creating glass works.
It’s a great place to find a unique gift, as all of the designs are one-of-a-kind.
Jewelry
The art glass jewelry is expressive and unique. MoltenWolf Glass designs the jewelry using a number of different techniques that allow them to showcase the beauty of glass.
Functional Pieces
From beautiful glass serving dishes, plates, bowls, vases, and other useful items, MoltenWolf Glass’ unique homeware collection will bring color to your daily life.
All functional pieces are food and dishwasher safe. Since everything is glass, none of the items should be used in the microwave or oven.
Décor
Each piece of glass décor is an exclusive piece of art. Most of the décor art expresses the beauty of Bonaire through the eyes of the artist. Some is abstract, while others have specific themes and designs.
Special Events
Meet the Artist
True to their concept, once a month one of the glass artists and their art pieces are showcased. You can meet the artist and view and discuss their techniques and creativity, enriching the community with shared knowledge and inspiring other artists.
Classes
After opening the business and working on their inventory and collaborations, Jeff and Valerie will most likely introduce glass techniques classes in the coming year.
INFO
MoltenWolf Glass
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9AM-6PM
Location: Kaya J.N.E. Craane, Terramar 8
Phone/Whatsapp: +599 7011880
Email: moltenwolfglassinc@gmail.com
Instagram: @moltenwolfglass
Facebook: moltenwolfglass
Website: www.moltenwolfglass.com
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