We mentioned in our last newsletter that we recently collaborated with Kew Gardens, providing them with recycled glassware for the gift shop of their Dave Chihuly exhibition. We thought we’d take this opportunity to elaborate, given that Chihuly is a genius in the art of glass sculpture, and has a lot of great things to say about his medium. You can find an interview with him on the occasion of the Kew exhibition here.

Chihuly arrived at glassblowing via interior design, thinking initially that he wanted to be an interior designer. When he found his true passion, he worked as a fisherman in Alaska long enough to raise money for graduate school. From there it was a tale of going from strength to strength: RISD, then a Fulbright scholarship to Murano. After fifty years as a successful artist, he can safely say: “I’ve never met a colour I didn’t like”.

In the words of the man himself, “glass is the most magical of all materials. It transmits light in a special way.” We happen to think so too, and also love glass for the fact that it can be infinitely recycled. We have been getting our glassware from the same family-run workshops in Tonala and Tlaquepaque (both in the state of Jalisco, near Guadalajara) since Milagros’s beginnings. There, glass bottles which have reached the end of their lives are melted down and made new into beautiful, brightly-coloured glassware which lets the light through just so. Every single piece is handmade and mouth-blown, which makes for charming (we think so!) variations in height or width.