DESIGN >
A glass kingdom
Written by: Štěpánka Strouhalová
Photo by: Věroslav Sixt

Building your existence on glass seems like a somewhat fragile undertaking. But in the case of Zdeněk Lhotský, a glass artist and the owner of one of the largest molded glass studios in the world, this is a solid foundation.

	Zdeněk Lhotský

THE HISTORY OF Lhotský's studio in Pelechov, near Železný Brod, traces back to the 1950s, with the birth of a revolutionary technology for pouring glass into molds. Before his studies at the Institute of Applied Arts (VŠUP) under Professor Stanislav Libenský, Lhotský worked briefly at the glassworks as a laborer. Several years after the Velvet Revolution, with the Pelechov shop on the brink of demise, Lhotský returned as the owner. "Like every designer, I had to find a glassworks to bring my designs to life. So I bought my own facility in order to make my dreams come true," Lhotský explains with satisfaction.
But this isn't glass work in the true sense of the word, it's rather arts-and-crafts production, with the glass not being blown, but rather cast in the Czech way. "We put glass shards into molds made of plaster and sand, then we fire them, and the glass fills the mold. The technology allows you to form the glass into almost any shape, so glass artists from around the world realize their works here, mainly monumental pieces for architecture," Lhotský says. The studio has also the place where most of famed artist Stanislav Libenský's orders are cast. In Prague, his works include the windows of the St. Wenceslas Chapel in the St. Vitus Cathedral and the glass sculpture at the Hilton hotel, with some others on display at the Libenský retrospective in Prague's Veletržní palác.
Lhotský's immersion in creative design manifests itself in large-sized molded sculpture, such as giant bowls for interiors, and so-called fused or poured glass. "This begins with melting and pouring glasses of various qualities and colors together. We filled a container with shards when we were developing this process," Lhotský says. This collection, called S.K.L.O. includes an unbelievable range of plates and bowls, and more recently, sinks with original decorations. Some plates look like they're chiseled from ice, and others are reminiscent of surrealistic or natural motifs or ancient cave drawings. Although his works are sold in this country exclusively in design galleries, such as Giga Line or Konsepti in Prague, Lhotský doesn't think that they're gallery quality. "They are real, technologically verified design products that could be mass produced easily. It would be simple to sell them in a large retail chain," he says.

Architectural realization, molded glass sculpture, "Space". Japan, designed by Libenský and Brychtová.

Fused bowl - S.K.L.O.

Poured plates from the S.K.L.O. collection

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