Elliot Walker / Blowfish Gallery
Lulu recently collaborated with the renowned glass blower Elliot Walker & Blowfish Gallery after the International Festival of Glass 2024, in Stourbridge. As part of the project they melted 90kg of Lulu’s batch (made from waste materials from various industries) including; wine lees, biomass ash, quagga mussel shells, local sand, waste cullet & recycled glass. This was developed with experts from The Glass & Ceramic Research Centre at Sheffield/Hallam University.
Over the course of 5 days, they loaded the tank furnace pot most evenings with a new lot of batch. The next morning it had melted into an incredible molten & malleable bubble free glass. From this they created hand blown glassware collections, each with their own playful theme - prototyping creative circularity for luxury tableware.
This project is an example of how by combining art & science / industry & academia, there can be a future working with natural raw materials and local bi-product waste to create our own experimental and sustainable glass batches.
Whiskey Bottle/Glass Prototype, made for Johnnie Walker/QEST Princes Street Exhibition