Latha Ajith works with glass to great effect, producing traditional stained windows to designer pieces

Nothing about the building just off the Container Terminal road at Cheranellore suggests Krish Glass and Glazing. It is only when, inside the building, Latha Ajith points in the direction of her office we get an idea of the work she does. Each wall is made of glass panels each showcasing a different technique of glass work – painted, stained, embossed – one very different from the other.

Glass is an unusual choice of material to work with, for a woman and on this scale. “The closest I came to working with glass was at my husband’s steel storage units making plant where glass is bent for storage units such as the ones used in bakeries. I saw bent-glass so I had no clue about how it was done.” A visit to a trade show in Mumbai opened her eyes to the wonders of glass. She was struck by the creative options it offered. Glass made her curious and she started asking questions about it. At every trade show she attended with her husband she asked questions at the glass stalls. “After I finished asking questions about techniques in one stall I would move to the next and then to the next. Finally I would quiz myself on what each technique was and virtually learnt the process by myself.”

Latha is one among very few women in India who have glass as their business. “Even at trade fairs there aren’t too many women.”

Her passion for glass grew to such an extent that she set up a unit to fashion glass – stained glass, treated with acid, mixing processes, etching, colouring, fusing glass and fabric or glass and glass – Krish Glass and Glazing in 2004 and a showroom Krish Glass House in 2010. “Whatever I learnt, I learnt on the job.” Her initial plan was to start a dealership but she gave up considering the risks involved which included breakage during transportation.

A trip to Ghaziabad, known for its glassmaking units, got her the equipment and the workers with the know-how.

Latha’s manufacturing unit has huge, hulking machines which bend, mould and shape glass; in one part workers go about cutting glass while elsewhere in the compound is a huge China-made machine which laminates fabric with glass to stunning effect.

On the first floor an artist meticulously puts together a stained glass picture, glass by glass using Belgian glass. A huge flex print of a Ganesha seems to oversee the process. “Flexes are made in order to replicate them in glass, based on which a ceramic mould is made for embossing,” Latha says.

Glass is a popular option with interior designers and architects since it is cheap and aesthetic. Churches, from various parts of the State, comprise a major chunk of her clientele requiring stained glass panes, windows and backgrounds for altars.

Recently she got involved in the restoration of aged glass too. In a square basin lies a stained glass panel soaking in what looks like water. “The stained glass panels are more than 200 years old, from a church in Kottayam. They tried getting it cleaned at many places before finally coming here. I asked them to leave it here. It took some experimentation but it is working. We will get the panels clean.”

When there is a ‘project’, she works in the unit till the piece is packed, loaded and transported. There have been times like when the Last Supper scene on glass shattered while being packed for transportation. “It was the day before Easter and the client wanted it that day but he understood when I called and told him what happened. Within a few days I got it redone and had it delivered.”

At times such as these she stays back late and works along with her team. “Whatever we have done has been a team effort.” Although she has a creative team she is involved in the designing and innovations.

Krish Glass House near Edappally Toll is a testimony to her effort. Glass embossing is her pride as she shows each piece – a Ganesha, a pair of horses, abstracts – “there is so much that can be done with glass and the different ways in which it can be used.”

According to Latha, artistically worked on glass has many takers, it being a cheaper option and aesthetically appealing. Some of the other options , she says are cladding, flooring, partition, as wall pieces, tiles and even fabricating entire walls in the material. “There is so much one can do with glass,” she says. Latha, it appears, is not done with innovating.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Shilpa Nair Anand / February 18th, 2015