Tord Boontje was born in The Netherlands in 1968. His education at the Eindhoven Design Academy, class of 1991, and the Royal College of Art London, graduate of 1994, set the foundation for Studio Tord Boontje which makes the eco friendly range of home accessories called Transglass.
The idea behind the label Transglass was “to use what we have around us”. The firm has developed a one-of-a-kind home accessory range by just recycling glass bottles using relatively simple machines that they have in their workshop.
Glass bottles are some things that form a major portion of the trash of any household. Many a times we have all taken an empty bottle and turned it into something else: we pop a candle into the neck and it is a candelabra, we fill it with flowers and it becomes a vase.
Transglass have refined this act a little more and have literally given an edge to the glass bottles which have finished their original function. So a diagonally-cut wine bottle becomes a jug, two wine bottles come together and become a carafe. Some more discarded wine bottles are transformed into a vase for orchids and the bottoms of beer bottles make a group of drinking glasses.
The first pieces for Transglass were designed in 1997 and were originally produced by Tord Boontje and Emma Woffenden in their London studio. Since 2005 Transglass is produced in Guatemala City in a newly created workshop where young people learn the skills of glass making and out of which many have become experts in cutting and polishing.
Tord Boontje has worked with a range of international companies such as Shiseido, Yamaha, Hewlett Packard, Bisazza, Target, Philips, Kvadrat, Alexander McQueen, Perrier-Jouët, Nanimarquina, Artecnica, Authentics, Meta and has continued his work with Swarovski, Moroso and Habitat. The range of products includes lighting, graphics, textiles, ceramics and furniture.
Contact
web: www.tordboontje.com
