Description
Like his set of Menta drinking glasses, Giberto sees his Calla Vase as a natural follow-on from the traditional Venetian “goto” tumbler.
“Menta is all about fresh and clean design, a reminder of spring, a burst of energy: here is why I imagined this Spring series glass in emerald green and embellished by a lime rim”.
Menta is a large glass, slightly flared, hand blown in green Murano glass with a light green rim; a contrast that brings back to the roaring Thirty’s aesthetic, fané, allowing any table set incredibly elegant.
Following on from his set of Menta glasses, Giberto has continued the theme with a vase, whose larger size highlights the shifting colours to even greater effect.
Simple, ineffably elegant, yet quietly assertive, the slightly flared Mare Vase is fashioned exclusively by Murano craftsmen. Its myriad shades and reflections are best offset when placed on a large table filled with beautiful Calla flowers.
The Designer
The life of Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga is viscerally linked to Venice. His childhood memories, the most beautiful, are those that have taken place in the rooms of Palazzo Papadopoli, between frescoes of Tiepolo and family affection. “In my earliest memories Venice had other colours. It was more obscure, dramatic, decayed and deeply romantic – simply beautiful. There wasn’t the same light like there is today – more dazzling perhaps, but less poetic.”
Craftmanship
Each piece derives from a watercolour sketch made by Giberto on tracing paper: “When I see something that inspires me, or an object that I like, I sketch and rework it – then move on to the realization of it.”
The glass, the main material in the collections, is worked exclusively in Murano. Each glass, each specific object, is blown by master glassmakers in the Venetian furnaces.
Giberto takes his watercolours to discuss with them and refine the project, check its feasibility, and to make eventual changes.