Ayako Tani was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1981. She immigrated to Sunderland, England in 2006 to pursue higher education in glassmaking. Tani is now established in the UK as a glass artist, scientific glassblower and researcher in the area of glassmaking.
Glass artist, scientific glassblower, curator, and lecturer, Ayako Tani was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1981. Between 1999 and 2003, she studied for a BA in Liberal Arts at the International Christian University and also attended classes at the Tokyo Glass Art Institute, where she practiced glass blowing, bead-making, and kiln casting. However, she then began an office job, only enjoying glassblowing as a weekend hobby.
In 2006, Tani relocated from Japan to the UK to pursue studies in glassblowing full-time at the University of Sunderland, after working as a consulting engineer for a computer company in Tokyo. By 2007, she was enrolled in a Master’s degree, graduating in 2008. Between 2009 and 2014, Tani pursued a PhD in Glass Art at the same university, graduating with a thesis titled Multi-Dimensional Line-drawing with Glass through a Development of Lampworking. Upon completing her studies in 2014, Tani connected with the National Glass Centre in Sunderland and informally continued her education with retired scientific glassblowers. Here, she discovered a passion for the once popular but now forgotten art of creating glass ships inside glass bottles and has since been committed to researching and documenting this niche technique. Tani has stated: 'As a practice-based researcher specialising in the lampworking technique, I took it as my vocation to archive the history of the production of glass ships in bottles and pass down the making skills for the future." (Ayako Tani website). She began learning how to craft these specialised glass pieces alongside Brian Jones, a scientific glassblower who was employed by a glass manufacturing plant in Sunderland. Scientific glassblowing, using a gas torch to create glass equipment, primarily uses borosilicate glass (also known under its trade name Pyrex). James A. Jobling Ltd. in Sunderland was the UK's chief Pyrex producer. However, with the rise of mass production and the outsourcing of business to China, combined with shifts in consumer preferences, manufacturing in the UK eventually ceased. During the 1970s, redundancies affected its glassblowers, many of whom shifted to making gift glassware, such as the glass ships in bottles.
Tani's art practice concentrates exclusively on glasswork in terms of creation, design, curation, lectureship and installation. In 2008, she established her business, Ayako Tani Glass, to focus on lampworking glass. With her company, she has produced work from borosilicate glass, known for its resilience to high temperatures, working with a distinctive technique which she terms ‘calligraphic lampworking’. This approach, inspired by the principles of calligraphy, allows her to express memories and physical movements through the fluid nature of glass, treating molten glass akin to ink in her creative process. She draws inspiration from her own memories and those shared by others. Tani has exhibited her glasswork in the UK and internationally. Her major exhibition Glass Ships in Bottles, which opened at the Scottish Maritime Museum in 2022, marked the culmination of her project Vessels of Memory, a series of shows, commencing in 2018, which she curated and which were held in different venues around northern England and Scotland. This endeavour encompassed both research into the local history of this practice, documenting and archiving vintage pieces and interviewing retired glassmakers, as well as her own creation of glass ships in bottles, exploring the history of this craft in relation to its origins. Special emphasis was placed on the thriving production in Sunderland (where many pieces were produced by ex-Pyrex lampworkers) and the global shifts in manufacturing. In 2024, she was part of a group exhibition The Glass Heart held at Two Temple Place in London, which showcased pieces from the traditional glass-making regions of Stourbridge in the Black Country and Sunderland in the Northeast, as well as modern creations from the Stained Glass Museum in Ely, Cambridgeshire. It explored the stories integral to glass art and its production, honouring the enduring craftsmanship, creativity, and pioneering techniques involved in mastering this medium.
In addition to her art practice, Tani is affiliated with different educational and cultural institutions. Between 2014 and 2016, she was the project coordinator for the WALK Research Group at the University of Sunderland. In 2018, she presented at the Glass Art Society conference and received the Jutta-Cuny Talent Award in 2019. That same year, she served as an AHRC Creative Economy Engagement Fellow at the University of Sunderland to research glasswork, maritime legacies, and glass factories in the UK and China. Since 2022, Tani has been the Assistant Scientific Glassblower at the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, where she creates bespoke glass pieces for research. According to the Heritage Crafts Association, scientific glassblowing is an endangered craft in the UK. That same year, she started as the Assistant Curator for the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge. Ayako Tani lives and works in Sunderland, England. Her work is held in several UK public collections, including Broadfield House Glass Museum, National Glass Centre, Manchester Art Gallery, and the V&A.