Pavel Novak

Pavel Novak was born in 1974 in Litomerice, Czechoslovakia and raised in the Czech Republic, a country with a long tradition of beautiful glass made with impeccable craftsmanship. He received his Bachelors degree from the Glass School in Novy Bor, where he later taught in the cold-working studio from 1993-1997.  Much of his time is spent developing his own unique sculptures while assisting other glass artists such as Michael Pavlik, Josh Simpson and Steven Weinberg, and teaching workshops at Corning Museum of Glass, Tyler School of Art, and the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

Following his graduation, Novak secured a position at one of the largest glass factories in the Czech Republic, Crystalex. Novak has described this experience as a “very grueling job with long hours and no incentive to be creative or use any type of initiative.” Some months into his new position, the principal of the Glass School came to the factory and offered Novak a position at the school, as a glass grinding instructor; Novak immediately left Crystalex and began teaching. A few years later, Novak met Michael Pavlik, who was instrumental in Novak receiving – and accepting – an invitation to the United States. It wasn’t until over a decade later that Novak completed his process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

When designing his line of jewelry, he was challenged to integrate his glass with sterling silver while maintaining the integrity of each material. Novak was not interested in setting the glass on top of the metal in a traditional stone setting but integrating the two materials to form a whole. His work is inspired by clean geometric shapes. His pieces feature bold colors and crisp lines that optically reflect on themselves and refract light creating kaleidoscopic results. Novak ultimately seeks a balance of symmetry and asymmetry, positive and negative space, as well as shape and color. His sculptures are made from the highest grade of optical glass which is ground, polished, laminated, colored, and sand blasted. He begins with a raw piece of glass, which is grinded on various flat wheels with different grades silicon carbide. After this process, the pieces are polished on a felt wheel with pumice and cerium oxide. Once the piece has been brought to a perfect polish, he can then color, sand blast, and /or laminate the glass to achieve my designs.   Each piece is the result of hours of work.    

Novak was won a multitude of awards including the Award of Excellence, ACC Baltimore, (2011), Excellence in Glass, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2017), Artist Choice Award, Palm Beach Fine Craft Show (2019), among others.