PHOTO COURTESY JONATHAN HANSEN
New York-based designer and consummate collaborator Jonathan Hansen—who has worked with everyone from Thom Browne and Ralph Rucci to The Haas Brothers and L’Objet—recently released his first collection of handcrafted, engraved crystal glassware, aptly named In the Clouds. Made by master craftsmen of the Bohemian crystal tradition in the Czech Republic, the collection features 10 pieces in clear and tinted gray crystal. Luxe tapped Hansen to learn more about his ethereal work.
What was your initial inspiration? It started with hand-painted ceilings in European palaces and cathedrals, which made its way onto a porcelain collection in collaboration with Marie Daâge. As we were all inside over the past year, my eyes were drawn to the actual expansive skies. Taking the cloud theme and working it onto crystal objects felt like the right step in the evolution of my exploration.
Talk to us about the process. After studying hand-painted skies on porcelain with artists in Limoges, France, I was curious to see how the same theme would work in another material and through a different process. Clouds are masses of water and, somehow, the engraved crystal captures this, in that the clear crystal sits directly next to the “clouded” engraved crystal—a kind of embodiment of what the clouds in the sky are actually doing.
Do you have a favorite piece? The stemless wine glass feels wonderful in the hand—drinking a glass of wine while feeling the engraved clouds is a multi-sensory experience.
