The italian master artisan Simone Crestani specialized in glassworking is known as one of the best craftsmen in Europe. He started working with glass at the prodigious age of 15. After a ten-year apprenticeship in “Lunardon’s factory”, he opened his own studio: “Atelier Crestani”.
Simone Crestani sees himself as an artisan, but also as an artist. Glassworking, the technique he mastered, is very complex and requires years of study and dedication. ©Simone Crestani
Simone is an introspective and self-taught artisan that over years of lessons and experiences is trying to push glassworking beyond traditional boundaries. This exceptional glassworker uses ancient techniques but he also innovates and overcomes limits of shapes and dimensions of hollow spaces.
There is nothing more ancient than nature. We all belong to a neverending cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. The balance between all nature forms fascinates Simone Crestani and inspires his glassworking techniques. “Sea forms” is one of his many collections dedicated to capture the expression of natural beauty. ©Simone Crestani
In nature perfect symmetry does not exist. There is search for equilibrium, push for growth and resistance to adversities. At times the branches may stretch straight upwards, while in other cases they must bend in order to survive, lean over and adapt in order to continue to prosper. This glass sculpture from the “Sea Forms” collection incarnates this ideology perfectly. ©Simone Crestani
He works with glass using a technique that he calls Hollow Sculpture, which allows him to create large-scale pieces without neglecting the smallest details. Simone combines design and finest craftsmanship to produce groundbreaking and exclusive sculptural pieces. Simone’s advanced glassworking techniques are recognized and appreciated around the world.
“Eterea” is the name of this wonderful console table made with walnut wood and blown borosilicate glass, using a lampworking technique. It evocates the shape and lightness of sea foam. ©Simone Crestani
Simone’s “Bubble Mirror” is carefully cut and polished by hand, exploring the dichotomy between object and reflection. The work is adorned with delicate silver glass bubbles made using traditional Venetian techniques. ©Simone Crestani
To create his breathtaking art pieces, Crestani gently blows through a small hand-held rubber tube to expand torch-heated glass, shaping it with tongs and fusing different pieces and shapes together. His inspiration comes from natural forms, which, much like his mastering of glassworking techniques, exemplify equilibrium and imperfect elegance.
The bonsai is a concentration of life, it overcomes the barrier of size and expresses strength and energy; it is a work of art that is never finished, in which nature continues to develop and evolve. It’s this equilibrium and evolution that Simone tries to incorporate into glassworking, as we can see in “Sakura Bonsai”. ©Simone Crestani
His work starts outside of the studio, where he contemplates the beauty and poetry of natural forms found throughout the countryside. Through his sculptural glass works, Simone aims to recreate the balance found in nature by integrating his research with contemporary design. He gives life to his thoughts through glass. Glassworking is his way of expression.
Actaeon sees his reflection in a pond and discovers that Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, has transformed him into a stag. This mythological story inspired the “Hommage à Acteon” glassworking collection. ©Simone Crestani
Bloom is a twelve-candle candelabrum entirely made by hand from blown borosilicate glass. The classically shaped base of the candelabrum morphs into a tree trunk with pink blossoming flowers at the tip of its branches. It makes us evoke the innocence of cherry blossom trees, popular in Asian countries like Japan. There is an inherent beauty, delicacy and fragility in its shape and material.
“Bloom” was the work of art from Simone that was showed to the world at “Best of Europe” in Homo Faber 2018. ©Michelangelo Foundation
Simone admires the power of nature. We spend a lot of energy to control it, to conquer it, to bend it to our uses, but nature always finds a way of having the last word. This tension between humans and nature inspired the glassworking collection “Tensione estetica”. ©Simone Crestani
“I don’t want to know who wins, I don’t care; I only wish to immortalize the clash, the exchange, the fight.”©Simone Crestani
“I feel blessed to be the medium through which glass can express itself, in the continuous search for its full potential.” Simone Crestani
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