These Glassware Pieces Are Mind-Blowing
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It’s no small task to shape molten glass over face-melting heat to create a delicate glass object. Considering the physical strain, machinery expenses, and volatile medium? Even more outstanding.
Formerly pigeonholed as a craft material, glass has recently captured the attention of the larger art market and is fast becoming the next frontier in design—whether it’s Bradley Bowers’s enormous, chrysalislike Fiosa vase we spotted on full display at Dolce & Gabbana’s showcase at this year’s Salone de Mobile; a new record-setting handblown glass bottle on view at the Museum of American Glass in New Jersey; or the promise of a fourth season of the Netflix hit Blown Away, which is basically The Great British Bake-Off but in a red-hot glassblowing studio that makes those countryside tent kitchens seem subzero by comparison. Apparently, interest in glassblowing is not strictly for hot-air enthusiasts.
But nowhere is the art of glassblowing being pushed to greater heights than in the design world, where consumers looking for something innovative are ready to put their money where their mouth is. We’re featuring six artists who have taken on that challenge. From hand-worked Murano glass lamps to beveled cobalt blue vases that have been individually mouth blown, these norm-shattering glass-blown pieces are anything but derivative.
Eclipse Vase
If we need proof that we’re in the golden age of design, this sculptural vase, by Ursula Futura, is it. Hailing from Vienna, Austria, its elegant carved windows (mouth blown, for greater accuracy) create an interplay of light and offer a glimpse into the varied hues that give the vase its chromatic richness. “Nature, science, and moments of wonder are often the starting point for the playful fantasy creations of Ursula Futura,” the studio explains on its website. “Interested in the expression of emotions through objects, her designs are about raising a smile, spreading joy, and piquing curiosity."
Verdi II and Ambra Murano Portable lamps
Is there anything cuter than these mini portable lamps, which are cordless, rechargeable, water-resistant, and come in seven different colors? They’re the result of a collaboration between film producer Rebecca Marks and Venetian glass designer Paola Petrobelli for her first lighting collection, available through her product design company, Green Wolf Studio at Abask. The Murano glass lamps, which feature different gems at the center of their Ametista I design, provide a striking contrast against their gem-hued outer shade. Let there be light!
Floren, Rem, and Preserves Sculptures
Seattle-based glass artist John Hogan has done it again in his latest collection, dubbed Menagerie, for the Future Perfect. The collection is made up of 105 palm-size glass objects that prove that bigger is not always better. Each piece, produced by a method in which Hogan works with the glass in its cold state, is a refreshing take on an age-old art—with color galore.
Kaanch Glass Series Vessel I
Whoever said glassmaking had to be a solemn art? This abstract, colorful vessel, one of 11 objects in the Kaanch series, is the result of a collaboration between Guatemalan-based Diego Olivero Studio and a team of artisans in New Delhi. Each piece in the series (Kaanch is Hindi for “glass”) is a vessel or light featuring playful shapes welded onto a clear glass surface. The pieces are as hearty as they are happy, made up of borosilicate, a special glass invented in 1800s Germany that won’t crack under extreme temperature changes like regular glass.
Sticky Bubble Pendants and Mingling Lamp
Design company Sticky’s lighting collection of pendants and table lamps shows the scope of the work it’s capable of creating out of its Brooklyn studio. Each piece is handblown with each bubble calling attention to the fluidity of glass as a material. It’s then given a custom brass base for a modern edge. Affectionately dubbed by the company as “lights that hug,” it’s clear, more than ever before, that the future is blobby.
Marie vessel
The philosopher Aristotle once wrote that “art not only imitates nature, but it also completes its deficiencies.” Case in point: Designer Laura Kramer’s newest collection at the Heller Gallery not only recreates what we see in nature, but also shows us new ways to interpret it. The Marie vessel was inspired by scenes such as barnacles on a boat hull. It was intended to “question the hybridity of made and natural materials,” the website notes. “They seem to defy accepted systems of classification contained in a cabinet of curiosity and explore the liminal.”
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