Twenty-seven years at the torch.

He trained as a technical glassmaker, tried other trades, and came back. From 1995 to 2022 he worked in art glass alone.

The work is flameworked, not blown. A borosilicate rod is held in the torch until it softens, then drawn and shaped by hand into a solid figure. There is no mould and no casting anywhere in the process, so no two pieces are the same, even when it is the same motif.

Every finished piece is signed by hand — the letters O.V., usually in gold, laid onto the glass and fired in. It is the last thing that happens to a piece before it leaves the bench.

Surfaces are left clear, gilded in gold, turned amber by iron oxide, built up from coloured North Star glass, painted, or sandblasted to a matt finish — often several of these within a single figure.