Luxebook August 2022

and produce glass that is required for Arjun Rathi Designs’ products. However, the studio has also been opened to designers who wish to collaborate with the brand, giving them access to blown glass and all the tools needed to work with it. “Collaborations are key to the development of the studio as they bring new ideas which help us design and innovate better,” adds Rathi. Making process The glass blowing process might come across as dangerous and complicated. However, Rathi compares the process to moulding clay stating its many similarities.“Working with glass is similar to working with clay-ceramics, but on a horizontal axis. And you obviously cannot touch the material due to the working temperature of molten glass.” The set-up of the space, Rathi claims, is similar to those of most international glass studios. There is a melting furnace, which maintains a working temperature of 1,150 degrees Celsius, and is kept running 24/7. A majority of the tools are standard glass blowing implements, consisting of jacks and pliers, along with several shaping and sculpting tools, some of which are indigenously made by the artists themselves. Coming to the techniques used in making the glassware, Rathi points out that it can take years to master the art of shaping glass effectively. “Some artists spend their entire career, specialising and producing glass using techniques. To find the balance in our production design for lighting, we invite resident artists specialising in various glass techniques to up-skill our Indian artists and share their experience with glass allowing us to design new shapes and forms.” He further sheds light on the process, “Our current artists have over 15 years’ experience working with the material, which gives them the necessary skill to create our works. For example, a standard 9 inch Bullseye candy glass module, with white base and black stripes, a prototype they have developed (pictured on previous page) takes about 35 to 40 minutes to produce. After all glass is produced, it is put into an Annealer, a slow oven, which cools glass gradually to room temperature over 14 hours. Glass is a material which retains all memory, any working mistake or error is always present in the final shape. Clear glass is infinitely recyclable but once colours are added it cannot be repurposed. Hence, it’s imperative to have experienced glass blowers working at the studio for production, as pieces must be discarded, and mistakes can rarely be corrected during the working process. “At our studio, broken pieces are either melted into glass bricks or accessories to generally give new life to errors in production. On the flip-side, when making glass art, mistakes and errors sometimes bring out new shapes and forms, which has been one of the most exciting parts of working with the material. We have been able to develop several new lighting installation modules through this process.” Icing on the cake Post Covid in 2021, with an eagerness to produce an Indian inspired, pop-colour whimsical lighting collection; I started exploring my nostalgia with Indian candies and desserts. As a country known for its rich culture, bright and vivid colours, a lot of our modern design shy-ed away from it. We wanted people to be overwhelmed with light and colour in a way that they have never experienced. The collection drew inspiration from our emotional connect with food, and took colours, textures and shapes from some our favourite desserts across the country. The first edition of the collection explored five key series, The Candy, Bullseye, Paan, Motichoor and Chocolate; each of them exploring different materials, colours, textures and formats of lighting in a unique manner. The Candy and Bullseye series, inspired from pop-colour and striped Indian candies became the signature of the collection as it explored art-glass and is customisable across all formats of living room decor. 30| L U X E B O O K | A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 | L U X E B O O K | 31