Summer holidays have come to an end and, last week, I came back to my workshop “full energy” mode on. I’m really eager to share things with you, to experiment with new designs and to get immersed in new projects.
My holidays have been the ideal moment to reconnect with the world of ideas. This summer, I’ve taken the relax moments to think and reconsider about my project and also about what I am doing, why I have dedicated myself to Upcycling Glass Design and what I want to do in a near future.
Lucirmás: How my Upcycling Glass Design project was born
I’m very excited to begin this new stage writing a new post in my blog to tell you about the project I’ve dedicated my heart and soul: Lucirmas.
The inspiration to create this Upcycling Glass Design project came up 14 years ago in the middle of a crisis: at that time, I was entirely dedicated to create sculptures and scenographies but I didn’t have the connection to feel proud of that I was doing, I felt like I was not in the right path. It was precisely in that moment that I understood that, apart from beautiful objects, I had to create useful ones. I’ve always been attracted by design but, specially, I was fascinated by the relation between shape and function.
Why did I choose Upcycling?
Maybe you are wondering about how I ended doing Upcycling. I’m going to be honest with you: when I began with this Lucirmas, I didn’t even know what this word meant. I work reusing glass bottles, mainly wine ones, because I find them very simple objects but at the same time elegant and witnesses to lots of stories. What is a glass bottle but a special memory from a shared moment, a friendship, a party, an argument or a love story?
Glass bottles are the only glass recipient that are not reused in any of their distribution channels. Their production takes a big energy expense and generates a great atmospheric pollution. A returnable bottle can repeat its life cycle between 40 and 60 times. This should be the best option: to return the container to the manufacturer. There must be places to do a selective glass collection, but it is even more important that these glass containers are returnable. Unfortunately, it is not always like this and it is probable that lots of these bottles end melted to use their silicon in the construction of road pavements.
I find wine bottles a wonderful material, with great variety of shapes and colours. When I look into a bottle, I do not see glass ready to be melted and shaped again and again: I see an object with lots of potential.
From glass bottles to unique handmade objects
Mi goal is to transform this industrial abandoned object in another object with all the value and uniqueness of a handmade creation. I like to elevate the value from a common object to an exclusive one. It’s an exercise that I think we’d have to do with lots of the things that surround us. When I am in my workshop, I get surprised every time I cut a bottle and discover how, inside, their shapes are not rigid and perfect, but sinuous, irregular and warm. This way, although it may be that a bottle is a simple object, the glass with which it has been created holds a very special magic that only the ones who know very well this material and want to go beyond are able to see.
My creative process is profoundly linked to experimentation. I enjoy materializing and testing the ideas that come to my mind. Sustainability, exclusiveness and beauty are the three words which define my Upcycling Glass Design project. I enjoy creating beautiful things that make more beautiful the lives of others, but not only that: I love to know that all the objects that I create, apart from beautiful, have a function and, also, have brought a new life to the bottles they once were. Their story continues as a handmade design creation, exclusive for the ones who acquire them.
