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Tinkling Glasses

For centuries, the crafting of stem glasses was carried out in three steps: the bowl of the glass was first blown into the mold of the model, the stem and the foot were then applied to the first glass bubble.

Among the thousands of existing models, only a few bowl shapes are still used in French cristal manufactures for the making of hand blown tableware.
Because of the decline of hand-blown glass making, the majority of those molds, which yield semi-finished products, have become dispensable.

Those bells carry the memories of the French glassblowing heritage. They were handblown into molds preserved at the Vannes-le-Châtel Cristallerie (home of Daum and Cristal de Sèvres). Their shapes are those of glasses which are no longer produced.

The glass bowls became Tinkling Glasses thanks to the 3D printing of their stems at the FabLab in Vannes-le-Châtel, a makers workshop specially designed for glass artists and craftsmen. Glassblowing has always been the core activity of the village of Vannes-le-Châtel, which means that this project also symbolizes its renewal in the digital era.

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