Housed at their Mayfair gallery, British producer Established & Sons is showcasing their collection of lighting and objects which they recently developed in collaboration with legendary Italian glass producer Venini.

ESTABLISHED & SONS IN COLLABORATION WITH VENINI

16th July-1oth September 2010

ESTABLISHED & SONS LIMITED

2-3 Duke Street St James’s, London SW1Y 6BJ (020 7968 2040)

The exhibition showcases the six pieces in this collection, which includes designs by Established & Sons existing designers, Sebastian Wrong and Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec and introduces Michael Eden and Konstantin Grcic.

Venini was founded in 1921 on the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. Their glassware is handmade using the same wooden and metal tools that were used centuries of years ago, with a workshop of highly skilled artisan fifth generation glass blowers.

From the outset, Venini broke away from the traditional production methods of glassware and design constraints, and embraced an avant-garde style, implementing high quality techniques and colour palettes that have become synonymous with the brand to date.

Images, from top: LightHouse by Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec; Audrey Vase by Michael Eden; Blow by Konstantin Grcic. Images courtesy of Established & Sons.

At Vessel Gallery, Italian designer Luca Nichetto is showing his collection of vases, bowls, candles holders and small interior objects from the Essence collection. This body of work celebrates the processes and tools employed in artisanal glass and ceramic craftsmanship.

ESSENCE COLLECTION BY LUCA NICHETTO, 29th April – 30th May 2010

VESSEL GALLERY

114 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2PW (020 7727 8001)

Essence was born of Luca Nichettoʼs desire to share the knowledge of processes of artisanal production that he inherited when he was just a young boy growing up in Venice. Every one of the objects in the collection makes reference to one of the tools the uninitiated never see, for the designer wanted to bring these to the fore and transform their function in the process.

The result of his efforts is a group of products in which the materials employed – glass, ceramic, wood and metal – are aligned with the designerʼs Venetian roots, thereby reflecting what has always characterized his approach to design: a constant dialogue with the people involved in the physical process of production.

Bosa is responsible for Essenceʼs ceramic parts and distribution and Venini to assist in the realization of glass elements.

The collection travels from Venice to Paris and London with the goal of showcasing the artisanal quality of a typically Italian product by making reference to its origins and the techniques used in its production.

For some time now, British designers Barber Osgerby have been working with legendary Italian glass producer Venini (located on the island of Murano outside Venice). The fruits of their collaboration with the glass Masters are now unveiled at London’s Vessel Gallery.

‘Lanterne Marine’ by Barber Osgerby for Venini

VESSEL GALLERY

114 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2PW (020 7727 8001)

The designers explain the project:

“The island of Murano is a 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 traveling 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 aluminium, and are intended to evoke the vernacular of nautical objects found around Murano.

The edition is made up of three pieces in two colours each. The glass pieces combine archetypal vessels with opaque, open-tipped glass protuberances: these stamen-like pieces are intended to be filled with water and to hold flower stems.”