Elin Isaksson at work in her new studio in Alloa

LAST MONTH, at this year's Forth Valley Studios Open Day, I visited a Swedish glassblower who had just opened her glasshouse in the former carpenter's shop belonging to Alloa Academy.

The future of the Art Deco school a short distance away is uncertain since its years as a school are numbered and no-one seems certain as to what will happen to it next. But the carpenter's shop and other facilities in the outbuildings are being converted for use by artists and craftspeople, and Elin Isaksson, the Swedish glassblower, is one of the first tenants.

What I found surprising was that Elin didn't want to sell me anything. It wasn't that I was an unsuitable customer (at least, I think that's the case!). It was just that the glass bowls, wine glasses, champagne flutes and schnapps glasses were so new she hadn't had time to price them so was uncertain about what to charge me. Elin is one of the first craftspeople I have ever met who was determined to turn customers away!

In fact, she is also one of the first craftspeople I have met who seems to have established herself successfully from day one.

Born in Skellefteoa in Northern Sweden, as a young women she enjoyed painting in watercolour and painting on ceramics and glass so perhaps it was only to be expected that she would go to the glass school at Orrefors because she also wanted to make shapes. That was from 1998-2000 and the following year was spent working with three glassblowers in Gothenburg. She also spent some time blowing glass in France.

Then she had the choice of continuing her training either in Bornholm, Denmark - and she decided she didn't want to live on an island - or at Edinburgh College of Art. So off to Edinburgh she goes and, on her second day there, meets her future husband.

Her time at Edinburgh was spent completing her BA(Hons) and her Masters in Glass and Architectural Glass Design, during which she also spent time working in Italy and at Lindean Glass and the Northlands Glass Centre in Scotland.

From the start, Elin was successful in gaining commissions to execute architectural glass, including glass panels on a British liner, panels for the John Logie Baird Award and panels depicting the rain forest for the new Gateway Centre at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.

Among the very recent designs are the Chapters and Seasons glass panels for the £ 3.75m Cornhill Macmillan cancer centre in Perth Royal Infirmary, and the Water Lillies steel and glass sculpture for Alloa's new health centre, which has yet to be completed. Elin has also been an Artist-in-Residence at Edinburgh College of Art.

It was after Elin received the Perth commission that she decided 'to go for it' and establish her own glasshouse, winning a £ 5000 set-up grant from the Scottish Arts Council that was matched by another £ 5000 from Clackmananshire Council. Hence her new home in Alloa, where Elin carries out glass blowing, hot casting and kiln casting - and was just waiting for her gas kiln to be hooked up when I visited her.

In fact, she is now following a pattern set by Swedish studio glassmakers, producing everything from delicate stemware to the unique, bespoke architectural glass already mentioned.

She is also making light fittings. And, for her, blowing glass is like creating a molten butterfly whose shape and colours (either fired in the kiln or painted on to the glass) always vary slightly from piece to piece. Among them are the long, delicate vases with underlay colours that she calls 'Shoots.' And no, I couldn't buy one of them, either! But I did manage to buy two bowls.

Elin's glasshouse is part of the £ 500,000 that Clackmananshire is spending on arts projects in the £ 2.5m rejuvenation of its town centre. The council is to be congratulated on what it has achieved so far. But I do hope that it finds an imaginative use for the beautiful Alloa Academy.