Kiss Miklós

Among the properly cared houses with porch, along the well-arranged street of Swabian style, even the summer heat is not as oppressive. Leaving the famous Calvary hill, there is a ruined wall at right, and a colourful glass window in it, and the door. „This is the coat of arms of Magyarpolány, the village; I put it here to defend the yard against the wind”

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We step into a surreal garden. Glass bubbles defend wizened trees, branches are cradling fist-sized balls.

Waist-high luminous sculptures are among grass tussocks. Before our feet the breeze makes antennas of fused beer bottles whispering.

„Aged for twenty years inside me, finally I have started the headboard series now. I carve the fundamental laws of existence into colouring glass pegs. Only a few bits of this material can colour hundreds of bottles to green or blue.”

„I attended a high school of arts, with major of ceramics, and I was the first to graduate as glass artist at the Kolozsvár University of Arts. I become a designer at the Prodcomplex Glass Factory of Marosvásárhely/Targu Mures. We produced ornamentals and glasses. During 13 years my 600 models went into mass production. I was the first professional designer of the factory, but, as freshman, I was instructed by the old masters as well. I had complete freedom, I could use gold, platinum, lead…what comes into my mind.”

“I built a workshop at my village, Nyárád-gálfalva. Just I finished, the official notice arrived, that we are permitted to transmigrate to Hungary. The family moved in 1986, I was 40 that time, when I started my life again. We knew nobody here. I became a designer at the Ajka Glassworks. After the transition, my workmates were slowly worn out, the mood changed. So I left.”

„I started to establish a plant in Magyarpolány, but the production did not start because of financial problems. I fitted up this little house as a workshop. I applied to reconstruct the 56 m² colour glass windows of the Lutheran Church at the Városliget Fasor, Budapest. As a reference, I used the lead-glass windows of the St. Stephen room at the Veszprém County Hall, as well as the details of my own window prepared for this application. When I finished it, I was able to work just on the same level, as at the time of Miksa Róth. I procured the work.”

„ I teach ceramics at the School of Arts, and I run study groups. This year, upon request, we announced first time the Glass Camp. Parents are difficulty understanding that there is nothing to fear for the kids, when they are excitedly rummaging among the broken glass, assembling their first kaleidoscope.”

They have everything, what needs for managing ceramics and glass. Kilns, pottery wheels, a small furnace, a kiln for fusing glass, polishing machines. They have a special tool to make millefiori, here is an antique lamp made of this peculiar glass.

No hams hanging in the attic, but there is a small showroom, as he says , “the book of recipes.” You can find an example for all the equipment and technology, what he used or developed in the course of his life. If you want to know how to bite a glass, or what miracles can be produced by this craft, then you can go there and look for the „glass master with straw hat at the end of Polány”!

18/8/2013 Magyarpolány