Luna Gin Glass

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Hand cut lead crystal glassware designed for Cumbria Crystal, 2018.

Cumbria Crystal is the last surviving luxury crystal manufacturer in the UK, specialising in hand-blown and hand-cut 24% lead crystal. They focus on quality through artisan skills and target the luxury market and are suppliers to Royal houses and companies like Bentley, Rolls Royce and David Linley.

The aim of this project was to expand the company’s range of collections by introducing an innovative contemporary aesthetic for a younger audience, all whilst upholding the traditional ethos and values of Cumbria Crystal. The brief challenged students studying on the MA Ceramics & Glass programme at the RCA to design a new surface decoration to be cut onto glassware that is currently produced by Cumbria Crystal.

My winning design focused on the use of round cuts in a half tone pattern with large sections left blank, creating some irregularity and asymmetry within the uniform grid pattern that is traditionally used to mark the glass prior to cutting. I chose to apply the pattern to three pieces of glassware; a tumbler, wine glass and carafe. Collectively these three pieces form a modest yet all-purpose glassware service for the dining table.

Following a period of testing and prototyping by Cumbria Crystal my design has now been put into full production in the form of a stemmed gin glass which is available to buy via Cumbria Crystal's website (click here).

The first image (white background) shows the finished gin glass, whilst the other images and video show my design proposals modelled digitally using Rhinoceros3D and KeyShot.