Jonas Torstensson is a Swedish designer and glass artist based in Stockholm. With a genuine interest in environmental issues and a curiosity for the expressive qualities of different materials, he often creates artworks using recycled elements — such as discarded or surplus window glass. Invited by Swedish Tyre Recycling to interpret the theme of tyre recycling, Jonas created the unique art piece “Metamorphosis”, where material transformation takes centre stage.
About the artist
Jonas Torstensson is a designer and glass artist with a studio on Lidingö, just outside Stockholm. For many years, his artistic focus has been on exploring glass as an expressive image material. Through a personal and innovative technique, he creates compositions that play with structure, reflection, contrast, and the unexpected meetings between form, texture, and colour.
In recent years, Jonas has extended his artistic practice beyond glass, experimenting with found objects and recycled materials — often giving discarded items a second life. Among the new materials is recycled tyre rubber, from which Jonas has designed outdoor planters and other functional objects. By reassembling discarded materials in new contexts, he allows each artwork to gain a renewed purpose and a surprising visual identity.
A deep commitment to sustainability runs through all his work. Jonas is drawn to materials that carry a sense of history — remnants, rejects, and fragments that would otherwise be thrown away. Above all, his art is about curiosity and play: the joy of discovering what lies hidden within a material, and the delight of letting it reveal something unexpected.
About the art piece
Metamorphosis explores the dialogue between two seemingly opposite materials: soft rubber and hard glass. In this work, their usual roles are reversed. The rubber — typically flexible — takes on a solid, stone-like form, while the glass surface appears soft and yielding, moulding itself around the rubber cobblestone beneath.
Through this transformation, Jonas Torstensson invites viewers to reflect on how materials hold untapped expressions within them, waiting to be discovered by those willing to experiment. The artwork becomes both a visual and tactile exploration of material identity — a reminder that what we consider fixed or predictable can, in fact, change character.
“Working on Metamorphosis was a learning journey. While glass is a material I know intimately, incorporating recycled rubber and binders introduced new challenges and insights. The process itself became part of the artistic expression — a conversation between experience and experimentation”, says Jonas.
Metamorphosis embodies the idea of switched properties — a poetic reflection on transformation itself. It reminds us that change is always possible, not only within materials, but within perception, imagination, and the ways we choose to see the world around us.
Get in touch
Website: Torstensson Art & Design
Instagram: torstensson_art_design
E-mail: jonas@torstensson.se
Learn more: Art of Recycling