About Us

Andrew Firth and Hiko Izumisawa jointly own andrew firth glass studio. Andrew, who has been working with glass since 1984, does most of the glassblowing, while Hiko looks after the day-to-day running of the gallery.

All the glass for sale on this web site, and in the shop, is made in our glassblowing studio in Akaroa, New Zealand.

We produce a wide range of glassware; including beads, focal art beads, jewellery, pens, sculpture, tableware, souvenirs, and much more, all packaged well for travel, with worldwide shipping available.

The glass is made using the glass-blowing technique called flame-work (as opposed to off-hand where a furnace is used; see the Articles section for more information), also known as lamp-work (because an oil lamp was originally used), which involves heating and manipulating rods and tubes of glass over a flame, produced by a LPG/oxygen burner.

We are based in Akaroa, a small town on Banks Peninsula, in the South Island of New Zealand.