Michael Tetteh, Ghana’s solely skilled glassblower, clenched his tooth as he gripped a red-hot ball of molten glass, his burned and blistered palms naked in opposition to the steaming stack of moist newspaper he used to guard them.
The 44-year-old toiled within the warmth of scrap-metal kilns burning at almost 1,500 Celsius (2,700 Fahrenheit), pregnant with melted windowpanes, TV screens and soda bottles he would quickly rework into elaborate vases swirling with psychedelic color. Some turn out to be pink vases with streaks of black, different inexperienced pitchers and a few clear, on a regular basis bottles.
“Glass… is my passion, my heart,” he mentioned. “It’s like life. It takes you on a journey from one (stage) to a different.”
Glassware produced on the workshop of Ghanaian glassblower Michael Tetteh is pictured in Krobo Odumase, Ghana March 18, 2022. Picture taken March 18, 2022. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko
Tetteh’s strict use of recycled supplies, which he collects from scrap yards and landfills within the capital Accra, is a part of a acknowledged mission to cut back Ghana’s glass waste and what he considers wasteful imports.
He envisions a Ghana freed from overseas glass, having channelled its glass bead-making custom into a contemporary, multi-faceted business.
Ghana imports round $300 million in glass and ceramic merchandise annually, based on the Observatory for Economic Complexity. More than 80% of that comes from China, the world’s prime glass exporter.
Michael Tetteh inspects a chunk of glassware after permitting it to chill for greater than 48 hours at his glassware manufacturing workshop2. (REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko)
While some personal firms recycle their glass, Tetteh says nearly all of the Ghana’s glass waste finally ends up both in landfills or scattered all through the nation’s streets, posing a security hazard.
“We don’t have a (glass waste) collection process, and we don’t want broken glass flowing around like that,” he mentioned. “If we use recycled (materials), we can make money.”
Hailing from the city of Odumase-Krobo, the epicentre of Ghana’s conventional glass bead tradition, Tetteh found glassblowing in 2012 after spending a number of months in France and the Netherlands studying the craft with different Ghanaian bead-makers.
He was alone in his want to proceed upon returning residence, and set a purpose to ascertain a correct sizzling store in Odumase-Krobo.
Michael Tetteh collects discarded glass bottles at a waste administration facility in Accra. (REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko)
Undeterred by lack of finance, he constructed furnaces from scrap-metal and clay utilizing on-line tutorials. He fine-tuned his skills watching YouTube movies of well-known glass artists like America’s Dale Chihuly.
He has since employed a number of younger assistants from Odumase-Krobo, who he’s coaching and hopes will in the future run their very own workshops. Their work might be present in boutique outlets in Ghana and Ivory Coast, and has appeared in European and American artwork galleries.
“My heart (wants) to train young Ghanaians, both men and women, so they can learn this job,” he mentioned. “We will not have to go to other countries like China to buy what we want for Ghana.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
