Creating the MARAIS Vase with Glass-Blower Jason Stropko

Creating the MARAIS Vase with Glass-Blower Jason Stropko

After debuting our MARAIS vases earlier this year as a celebration of our 5 year anniversary of Melanie Abrantes Designs, we are pleased to debut a new collection of MARAIS vases at the 2019 London Design Fair.

To prepare for the Fair, we had the fortune of meeting and working with Jason Stropko Glass, a local Bay Area professional glassmaker who creates work inspired by nature. Jason Stropko is a professional glass maker and has been working with glass since 2003. In his own words: “I strive to create glass with fine craftsmanship and technique to last a lifetime and beyond”

As every MARAIS vase combines natural glass and raw wood material, we wanted to put a playful touch to the new vases by experimenting with color.

My intern and I met up with Jason to select color glass. It was so much fun to be able to handle the color glass on our own and imagine what could be created out of them!  I went a bit out of my element and selected more colors than expected—a beautiful cobalt blue, some pinks, ambers, and an array of whites and greens. Though these colors are unexpected of me, they were too beautiful to resist! 

Last Friday, Jason and I met up at his glass blowing studio and discussed what we had in mind. I showed him my vision and piece by piece, he began executing them. It was incredible to watch him blow glass and to learn more about the process and art of glass-making. I even got to help him out a bit by assisting him at times!

I was able to bring back the finished pieces which are absolutely stunning. The cobalt blue tumblers came out very elegantly, and I am so excited to make new vases out of these glass pieces. 

We are thrilled to be making new MARAIS vases and will be featuring them at the London Design Fair. Thank you Jason for all of your hard work and we are definitely hoping to work more with Jason in the future! Please check out his incredible line of work and you can even take his glass-blowing classes. 

CHECK JASON'S WORK OUT

website / instagram / facebook / classes

LONDON DESIGN FAIR

Sep 19–22
Old Truman Brewery
Shoreditch, London, E1 6QR