Latchezar Boyadjiev

      Latchezar Boyadjiev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1959 and educated at the Academy of Arts in Sofia in 1979. Boyadjiev also studied at the Academy of Applied Arts, Glass Studio with Professor Stanislav Libensky in Prague, Czechoslovakia from 1980-1985. Latchezar Boyadjiev defected to the United States via Italy in 1986 and resides/works near San Francisco.

        After settling in California, Latchezar worked for more than ten years in the field of optical glass. Since there were limits to the size of his objects, he decided to change to a different technique to accomplish his goal. Boyadjiev's drawing technique changed from pencil to charcoal, the glass technique from optical to cast glass.

        Once a drawing is satisfactory (sometimes taking him hours, days, or weeks to complete), a clay model is made. Then the actual sculpture is rendered in clay with perfectly smooth surfaces and details, followed with a series of positive and negative molds. This leads to the final plaster positive that will determine the outcome of the sculpture, which is cast in glass in yet another mold and later annealed, partially ground and polished.