Received her BA in Architecture with highest honors from UC Berkeley in 1994. She first worked in kilnformed glass at a prominent architectural art glass studio in the Napa Valley that specializes in large-scale installations. Over three years, she and her future husband, Scott Zoog contributed to art glass installations worldwide.
In 1998, they began working together full time at Scott's live/work studio in Benicia. As Studio 113, they have created public and private art glass installations, as well as custom sinks and lighting, and a line of elegant tableware carried by distinct retailers such as Dean & Deluca in St. Helena, CA; Twig Gallery in San Francisco, CA; Tetsubin Tea Company in Nyack, NY; Gomi in NYC, NY and Walker Lansing in Palm Beach, FL.
“In the late 90's, Scott was assisting on a commission, laminating wire cloth between layers of tempered glass; an intense and messy process. Scott wondered what would happen if he just fused it instead.’ When that succeeded, we slumped it into a bowl and gave it to the project designer. From there, it was a short jump to other metals and our entire line developed in leaps and bounds. We discovered that copper and brass were soft enough to work with the glass, whereas stainless steel would crack the glass to pieces from within. Recycled steel wool, metal shavings, aluminum and radiator fins can be found in the more experimental pieces. Through the heat of the kilnforming process, encased elements can change colors or partially burn away, and as air escapes from between the layers, it creates intricate patterns of trapped air bubbles and wrinkles in the metal. These days, collectors can mix and match the earthy colors and natural patterns in glass made by a handful of glass studios working with similar inclusions of metal in kilnformed glass.
Shortly after Open Studios in 2006, Von Zoog began a year-long body of work called "Figures in Glass", painted directly in the Tuesday Night Figure Drawing group in the Arts Benicia classroom. Reworked, kilnformed, and occasionally assembled into "combos" back in the studio, this series was shown at OZ Gallery in Spring of 2007.
Erika welcomes artists to join the drawing group in this challenging yet rewarding practice. Although this weekly event is uninstructed, self-guided instruction is made possible by the many highly respected instructors of the figure who have published books of their lessons, the classic of which is Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw.
erika@studio113.com
