The Story...
“We first worked with Venini eight years ago whilst designing bespoke glass
pieces for Stella McCartney's flagship store in New York.
Through our ongoing work with them we have become fascinated by the
elemental nature of glass-making and the ancient craft skills of the Venini
Maestros. The Island of Murano is an beguiling place. The glass factories were
banished here in 1291 to protect Venice from fire, and unlike the main
island, the only way of getting there is by boat. It was through our frequent
boat trips from the mainland to Murano that this project was conceived.
While travelling through the Venetian lagoon we observed how metal
frames or cages were used in different types of nautical objects: not just
for protecting the hanging lamps on boats, but also in the construction of
the buoys, and around the timber posts bricole that mark the traffic lanes
through the lagoon. In parallel with this observation, we were experimenting with combinations
of glass forms, designing pieces which could interlock and stack together,
creating new colours through layering. We wanted to create vases that were made up of these interlocking
pieces. We wanted them to be significant in size, and to do so we realised
that we needed to make special metal connectors to help support the
individual glass tops on the vessel base. As the designs evolved we
extended the connectors into frames around the glass base.
These are engineered from anodized aluminum, and are intended to
evoke the vernacular nautical objects found around Murano.
The original edition is made up of three pieces in two colours each.
The glass pieces combine archetypal vessels with opaque, open-topped
glass protuberances: these stamen-like pieces are intended to be filled
with water and to hold flower stems.”
Subsequent two new editions of six pieces in total have been added, three of the
pieces were launched in Porto Cervo, Italy in summer 2009. The London edition
of three art pieces in new colours was launched at Super Design during
Frieze Art Fair 2009 with Vessel Gallery.
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