Aleksandra Fixl - Taittuva sermi (5) - Lasi - "Culet-laattasarja"

The ‘Cullet tile series’ (N.6, N.8, N.9, N.11, N.13) separation tile is one from a series of 16 decorative elements, all unique, made from recycled bottles. They have been made using a double kiln slumping technique, enabling the glass to be hot-jointed, each with a unique texture revealed in daylight.

Dimensions (Height, Width, Diameter)
N.6 H 15,5 cm W 22 cm D 4 cm
N.8 H 17,5 cm W 20 cm D 4 cm
N.9 H 19,5 cm W 20 cm D 4 cm
N.11 H 18 cm W 20 cm D 3,5 cm
N.13 H 14,5 cm W 22 cm D 4 cm

About the project:

Cullet is an investigation into bottle glass, tracing parallelisms between historical glasswork and its industrialised form.

The glass industry was the first one to recognise the endless transformation possibilities of the processed material. It was also the first one to collect its discarded forms for recycling purposes, showcasing considerable social and economic value.

However, the reused packaging shows only a fraction of the properties that glass exhibits. Historical bottles refer to an era before industrialisation and standardisation, when glasswork was anything but a uniform material.

Aleksandra Fixl and Sidonie Devienne studied the manufacturing stages of bottle glass, to understand the current forms of one of the oldest materials in history manipulated by craftsmen.

Zooming in on separate manufacturing stages allowed them to retrace also the quality checks it has to undergo in order to become a usable product. They extracted shapes based on common defects present in specific parts of the bottle, which allow to explore the optical, structural and the ornamental presence of glass.

The project uses off-standard bottles to raise questions about the value of the material and its affordances, opening up alternative possibilities for applications making an industrial material fitting for a craft-inclusive and circular process.