Fall Highlights for Celebrating this Season

As the holiday entertaining days approach, Simon Pearce designed a variety of new items to enhance good times with family and friends. With the popularity of the recently launched Shoreham whiskey glass; we extend the unique gesture of its curve into a complimentary decanter and double old-fashioned.  The decanter’s streamlined silhouette is a statement piece for any bar, and feels great in the hand when pouring and serving for celebratory times this season.

A wonderful new entertaining item is the Hampton chiller. Pursuing design concepts that are both functional and beautiful, we brought together hammered stainless steel and our glass to create a stunning combination.  The spherical glass shape can be filled with crushed ice, and the benefit of the 18/10 stainless insert is to keep your wine or champagne bottles chilled without them getting wet sitting in the ice. Separately, the metal component can be used as a tabletop sleeve like a coaster to place a bottle in, while the glass shape can double as an ice bucket or even a vase.

 

Exploring interesting material combinations is a hallmark of our design pursuits.  Expanding on our popular barware category,  we brought together a smooth sculpted wood handle with a stainless steel element to create a few quintessential bar tools.  As a great gift for the home bar user, we created a grey leather/suede pouch to conveniently put the tool set away when not in use. 

As our forest of glass evergreen trees keep growing, we explored other mediums that our unique tree design can be interpreted in.  After sculpting our trees as prototypes to be made out of beeswax which were launched last year as tree candles, we then took the same models to cast the trees in our own pottery.  Two options of glazes are available of a classic white dove, or the reactive green glaze called moss glen that has interesting tonal detail along its edges.  The new pottery evergreens make a great addition to any glass tree forest to create a striking decor statement.

We developed the technique of adding a watery swirl around a glass vessel first on a Waterbury tumbler and then a lamp.  To add a touch of expressiveness and swirl to our wine glass collections, we brought this concept into a classic red and white wine glass shape.  Each Waterbury glass is entirely unique resulting from a small gather of molten glass added on the glass floor while the vessel is being formed.

Our perfectly imperfect form and edge treatment of the Burlington Hurricane shows off the unique characteristics of our glass.  This year, it has been interpreted into two new sizes.  The new small and large sizes combined with the medium are great as a grouping in clusters of all three items on a table, console or mantel.  Perfect for illuminating a holiday table for gathering.

Every Dog has it’s Day

As a tribute to dogs and the role they play in family life, we’ve introduced a new glass dog each year and for 2021 our latest creation is Derby. This new silhouette features the classic characteristics of a smaller breed dog inspired by pugs, bulldogs, and boxers.

The steps we went through to create Derby, started with renderings to explore variations and interpretations that can ultimately be made out of glass. From the hand renderings we pick a path to then sculpt in clay to establish a few three dimensional models. As the models emerge, we pick out the best features and elements to finalize into one ideal model.

Once we make a metal mold from the clay model, we can start forming Derby with some trials on the glass blowing floor. The glass blowers can make adjustments with tools while the glass is hot, and use a torch to smooth out the surfaces. We evaluate the first round of samples and make any other edits to the details, to get the final result we are after.

Derby follows the same design and development path we took with our existing line of pets including the iconic dog, the puppy, and a puppy ornament. These beloved animals are a striking reminder in glass of our essential connection to the natural world. Following our tradition of using local names from the countryside, Derby takes it’s name after a wonderful Northern Vermont town.

Please visit our Website or stores to explore these great gifts for any dog lover, to have as a keepsake, a paper weight, or a decor tribute to a favorite pet.

Warm Up with a Hog Toddy

You can taste autumn in a glass with the Hog Toddy recipe. If your ready for happy hour, or coming in from a trail hike, this warming drink is simply spiced hot cider with a splash of rye whiskey. Perfect for chilly days, mixing the richness of fresh apples, with rye whiskey from the Vermont maker Whistle Pig. The amber color of the drink is best experienced in an ideal glass like the Windsor Tankard or Ascutney Mug.

Here is the recipe served at our Restaurant:

Hog Toddy

1 oz Whistle Pig Rye

3 oz hot mulled cider

Orange wedge

Add Whistle Pig to an Ascutney Mug, or the slightly larger Windsor Tankard, top with mulled cider, and garnish with orange wedge.

Tis the Season: Evergreens

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The Simon Pearce Vermont Evergreens have become iconic symbols that truly emphasize our brand originality and authenticity.

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They remain a true reflection of the design influences that surround us in our beautiful Vermont setting. Our crystal clear glass formula along with the hand-tooled forms capture the magic of a tree as if it were made of ice.

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They create conversation and certainly stimulates the imagination. No two are alike. As with trees in the natural world, the subtle differences give them a unique personality.

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Make a Magical Arrangement

It’s desirable to have them in groups which might inspire years of collecting and growing a forest. We refer to them as “investment” pieces that can be used and reused every year as seasonal decor items, as well as the fact that they can stay out all year long.

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A new textural addition to any forest is the Snowy Branch Evergreens which are lightly dusted in white powder on the branches. This gives the impression of freshly fallen snow on our iconic trees. Enjoy the season!

Watch the video below.

 

Design Matters

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Growing up in a family of artisans, where aesthetics and attention to detail is a part of everyday life, each piece carries a story from the design origin to the act of handcrafting these artifacts. We’ve built success in designing and producing exceptional handmade glass and pottery for over 40 years.

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Design explores directions that stretch out the imagination and yet remain true to the brand heritage.  We push boundaries to express new forms and textures in our materials; the artisans have a muscle memory for making our products that typically bring new ideas back through a Simon Pearce lens.  We search for character, and then blend that with function, to turn out something that is beautiful.

We strive to inspire with handcrafted excellence. This is what we do every day…

Designing the PURE Oxide Rim Bowl

“When I set out to design this bowl, I wanted its form to lift off the table surface, have side walls that created plenty of volume, and be useful as a salad bowl—or be just a beautiful centerpiece, that could stand on its own.” —James Murray

 

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PURE Oxide-Rim Bowl

 

Today, with so many expectations of total perfection, most people typically look to objects or technology to represent it. In contrast to that philosophy, in our design work at Simon Pearce, we look to project character and uniqueness—a bit of artistic imperfection—as real expressions. It is this very quality that evokes our love and connection to the work.”

Master potter Mike Trempe throws these bowls on a potter’s wheel. To intentionally allow the mark of the potter to be a visible part of the design, we deliberately leave Mike’s throw lines on the bowl’s sidewalls. Master potter Matt McFarland created the glaze by applying an oxide effect on the rim of the bowl that blends into our signature white glaze. The result is a reactive interplay of textures, colors, and form that is unique to every bowl, surprising us in every rendition of this design.

Stratton, Redesigned

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Simon Pearce Stratton Collection

Stratton truly expresses the art of glass making. The technique of putting air into the glass and twisting it through the stem takes exceptional skill and harkens back to old-world handcrafting techniques.

The air twist concept has existed all the way back to the Georgian times and Simon has a few fine examples in his personal collection.

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Stratton Red Wine Glass, Stratton White Wine Glass

Simon carefully evaluated each of the pieces and recently spent time with the glassblowing team in Quechee to reimagine the Stratton design.  The result is a more refined and singular approach to the stemware collection.  The air twist now has a consistent look, and the proportions of the glasses are updated to the right capacities for
today’s connoisseur.

Enjoy these works of art every day…

Watch the making of a Simon Pearce Stratton Wine Glass.

The Ludlow Collection

 

The Ludlow Collection
Simon Pearce Ludlow Collection

 

Simon Pearce is about revealing the inherent beauty of the glass…and handcrafting it to a natural outcome. As a counterpoint to mass production and mechanized perfection, we make things with time-honored traditional methods.

Glass and wood have had a long standing relationship from the ancient technique of using wooden mould to form the glass designs. The wood moulds don’t last forever, and we typically only get between 50-200 items from a mould, so we recreate them constantly. We do this all in-house, and behind the scenes a lot of our tooling is made In our own shop. I was inspired to bring the wood and glass back together as a final design, and explored their relationship in forms.

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Simon and I refined the shapes that would best compliment each other in glass and wood. The design process took about three months using geometry and proper proportions as the guiding direction. Some of the forms were mocked up in alternative materials like foam before going to a prototyping stage….we then worked with the moulds department to make the first samples. We then spent about 6-8 weeks perfecting the items.

 

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Simon Pearce Ludlow Whiskey Glass Set

 

Walnut was chosen because of the richness in grain, and the beautiful tonality of this hard wood. The mid tone of the walnut also contrasts nicely with our brilliant glass. The ludlow collection now has about 12 items, all built to last, with handcrafted excellence. A recent addition to the line is the signature pitcher with the same modern profile as the whole collection. A great addition to any home, the Ludlow items are geared towards casual entertaining for gatherings and celebrations with family and friends.

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The PURE Water Vase

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Looking over the rushing waterfall in Quechee; you are immediately enamored with the forces of nature, and the way the sunlight hits the turbulent water.

We wanted to capture this experience in an Art glass piece. Something more expressive than our typically functional items. First, some sketches of the waterfall and got ideas down on paper; then we quickly went to work with the master glassblowers to find ways to achieve the effects that look like water.

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The pieces are first created with a large bubble captured in the base which takes a high level of skill. The glassblowers then wrap molten glass around the shape, and form the strands of glass into the wavy effects. The visual texture of water flowing over the falls then starts to appear in the glass.

We ultimately arrived at the dramatic ‘water vase’ by observing the turbulent water flow, and crafting that moment into a glass vessel that only a master glassblower can finesse.

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Simon Pearce PURE Water Vase