Lamp in stoneware, hand-blown glass, water, LED light
Suspended Axis – Variation II
2026
This work explores borders not as fixed lines, but as shifting conditions. It brings together stoneware and hand-blown glass, two materials that behave in fundamentally different ways. One carries weight, density, and solidity, while the other introduces transparency, revealing internal forms that would normally remain hidden.
Their meeting point is not seamless, and this structural tension remains visible. Inside the glass, water and light alter how the piece is perceived. The water acts as a lens, inverting the internal form and its shadow while distorting what sits behind the object. As the viewing angle changes, reflections and fragments of the surrounding space become part of what is seen through the glass.
This meeting between materials is central to the making process. The ceramic elements are wheel-thrown from recycled clay, combining clay bodies with different shrinkage rates, so their final dimensions are only known after drying and firing. The glass is then hand-blown to fit the fired ceramic. Each component is measured, cold-worked, and adjusted before assembly, allowing the two materials to meet precisely despite their contrasting behavior.
The border here is not simply where one material ends and another begins. It exists in the interplay between mass and transparency, structure and illusion. Rather than marking a fixed boundary, the work allows these relationships to continuously shift with light, viewpoint, and space.
Developed at the Department of Ceramic and Glass Design, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem.
Jonathan Sapir is a designer and artist based in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Working across ceramics and glass, his practice focuses on how materials meet and generate shifting conditions through their interaction. By combining stoneware and hand-blown glass, he creates objects that hold tension
between weight and transparency, structure and fluidity.
Often incorporating internal light and water, his work introduces subtle distortions that shift the perception of depth and space, and give rise to unstable boundaries within the form.