Glass – LQ

Culture & Context

As part of the Council of Irish Fashion Designers (CIFD) collaboration, Leonora Ferguson was paired with Design and Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) Portfolio maker Laura Quinn to create a runway look together in 2022. Both makers hold sustainability as a core value in their work. They both wanted to create a statement look whilst maintaining these values.

Taking Ferguson’s skills of combining elegant and energetic forms that sweep around the body, and Laura’s lampworking skills, the pair created this look with 100% recycled glass from Neal’s Yard Remedy, and Haig Club bottles. This look was shown at the 2021 Autumn/Winter CIFD show.

You can view the catwalk look here:  https://www.lauraquinndesign.com/projects 

Process & Production

Quinn collected Neal’s Yard and Haig Club bottles. The process for recycling them started with de-labelling, washing and smashing the glass and sorting it into its own tubs. It was extremely important not to mix up the glass from different bottles because it would be incompatible and would crack. Next she heated the glass shards in a kiln to 600c before picking them up, melting them using a hot oxygen-propane torch and shaped them into the leaf forms. A narrow steel wire was inserted into the molten glass during this stage of the process. 

After, Furgeson was able to assemble the structure using the steel wire in the glass, wrapped around the piano wire she used to create structure, before wrapping ethically sourced white ribbon around the wire areas to finish the look.