Hans Godo Frabel

Hans Godo Frabel (born 1941 in Jena, East Germany) is an East German–born lampwork glass blower, now living and working in the US.

Biography

Hans Godo Frabel is one of the very first lampwork glass artists in the world. He turned the technique of "working at the lamp" to an art form back in 1968, when he opened the Frabel Studio in Atlanta, Georgia. At that time crystal glass was not considered a serious art medium and few artists were utilizing the beauty and diversity of glass to create unique art pieces.

Frabel was the third child in a family with five children. The tumultuous political climate after World War II necessitated a family migration to West Germany. After living in several different cities, Frabel began to look at glass as a means to a career at the age of 15. He obtained a traineeship as a scientific glassblower at the prestigious Jena Glaswerke in Mainz, West Germany, and earned the degree of journeyman in 1959.

In 1965 he came to the United States and settled in Atlanta. There he obtained a position at the Georgia Institute of Technology in their scientific glass blowing laboratory. During this time he continued his studies of glass as an art form at Emory University and Georgia State.