Man’s produces beautiful pieces of glass designs birthed from early dream

Abel Sawe displays some of his glass products after applying his skill, rolling, blowing and crafting the intricate designs [PHOTOS: SILAH KOSKEI / STANDARD]

By SILAH KOSKEI

“During the melting process, the glass is subjected to 500ºC and later cooled below 50ºC in a span of five to eight hours”.

From this process come glassworks with artistic designs. “Every design encrypted on the glass or vases are my originals tracing their roots to Africa”.

Those are the words of Abel Sawe who earns more than Sh6,000 from one piece of glass in Norway today.

He admired glass-manufacturing business as an adolescent, and hoped he would one day have his own company. It was just a dream but little did he ever imagine that later in life, he would own a successful glass manufacturing company, not in Kenya but in Europe.

Born and brought up in Kosirai, Nandi County, his humble background could not deter him from achieving his dreams of venturing into what he considered the untapped market.

Sawe’s passion to undertake glass blowing business was ignited by the presence of a Finnish national, who was living at Lelemokwo area near his home in Nandi County.

Sawe was in school at Lelmokwo Boys High School in 1977, when he first visited the small glass-manufacturing factory run by the Finns in the village.

He marveled at how the family could use locally available material to make glass and began dreaming of starting his own business when he was through with his studies.

“Their presence in our area fuelled my curiosity in the glass business, because it was a grey concept that locals found strange and did not understand the technicality behind glass manufacturing,” he says.

After several visits to the home, the proprietors of the company were impressed by his interest and gave him a chance to work for them while still in high school. Squeezing his jaw with the index finger on his temple, as he narrates the story, Sawe proudly looks back and fondly remembers his first day of work at the glass factory, how he seized the opportunity and never looked back. “I got my first-hand experience in glass manufacturing at Lelmokwo, my interests developed each time I would visit the company as I balanced my studies and work,” he says.

Impressed by the young man’s work, the family decided to help him pursue his studies in Finland, where he was given a scholarship to study glass blowing after completing Form Four at Lelmokwo.

Completes scholarship

The agreement with the Fins was that he completes the scholarship, gains the required skill and heads back to the village to run the glass factory jointly with the family.

The family, then known by the Lelmokwo community as Mikko Merikallio, later shifted to their mother country, but were it not for their stay at Lelmokwo, Sawe could not be where he is today.

“Glass products were relatively cheap and most locals adopted their use and did away with aluminium products. The Finns’ presence spurred change,” he says. Although the process of establishing glasses was tedious, among the major ingredients harvested locally for processing were sand, silica and soda ash.

The three elements were subjected to heat of 1,500ºC and later melted lower to 1,200ºC where it was then moulded to any relative form.

“It was important to maintain the level of heat for about seven hours to be able to form glass, that was when one was able to come up with any kind of form, size and colour,” he adds.

 “Thanks to the family, I had performed well in my O level examination and because of my keen interest in glass business, I got a chance to study for one year at University of Industrial Arts in Finland,” says Sawe with pride written all over his face.

In Finland, he underwent induction and began training on various ways of skillfully manufacturing glass through furnaces and moulding them into different shapes and sizes.

In order to equip himself further with glass blowing skills, he applied for another course in Sweden in 1982 and was granted the opportunity to move there for further studies.

He went to Orresorss Glass School in 1983 and graduated from the institution with a Diploma in Glass Blowing Technology in 1985. The exposure and knowledge to artistically come up with captivating glasses saw him win accolades from his teachers and colleagues.

“I was the only African in a multitude of foreign students. My dream to ensure I harness the glass skill did not allow me to take any lesson for granted,” he says.

Upon completing the one-year course, he applied for a job in Norway and was accepted at Hadeland factory, where he worked from 1985 to 1987.

He remembers that the company was impressed with his prototype shapes of moulded glass and that was the reason they wanted him on board.

“Their sales were dropping due to competition and the need by the customers to embrace new shapes and styles of the products was key to me getting the job,” says Sawe. Despite getting a big pay, Sawe applied for another job at Fredrikstad Company in Norway, because he learned that he could get an opportunity of purchasing some shares in the company.

“The owners were selling half of the shares to willing buyers and because I wanted to own a company, I decided to buy the shares together with my Norwegian wife, Kari Spernes Sawe, who I had married in 1988,” Sawe tells The Standard On Sunday.

The company later changed names to Glasshytta Fredrikstad Glass Blowing Co after they acquired the business in 1991.

African designs

The company has since been under the Sawe’s leadership after they bought the entire company from the owners.

In order to survive the strong tides of business competition, he says his products have mainly been manufactured under the African designs.

“Every design encrypted on the glass or vases are my originals tracing their roots to Africa, and the customers have embraced it,” he adds.

Sawe says the glass business is currently thriving across the world but points out that Africa, which is believed to be the origin of the art, has shown little interest in his products.

Despite the promising career of glass blowing in Kenya, there is only one company in the country specialising in turning broken household glass to exquisite coloured pieces.

“During my free time in Kenya, I visit Kitengela Glass Company to share skills on how to shape the glass into appealing forms meant to suit the customers,” he says.

Sawe says the main challenges that derail most countries from establishing and promoting glass business is the heat concentration involved in the burning of the glass before the outcome of the final product.

“During the melting process, the glass is subjected to 500ºC and later cooled below 50ºC in a span of five to eight hours, a setback to most companies thinking of establishing glass firms,” he says.

He says despite the intense work involved in the glass industry involving physical work, the monetary gains are immense.

The father of four says the Ministry of Education should incorporate glass blowing courses into the curriculum so that institutions of higher learning can create jobs.

“This should be done with a vision that this will cushion the Government from high costs of importing glass since the same will be done in the country,” he advises.