London’s Design Museum has named designer Lulu Harrison the winner of the fourth annual Ralph Saltzman Prize for her “glass artefact” project made from waste shells, wood and bracken from the River Thames.
Harrison was named the winner by a jury made up of designers Konstantin Grcic, Seetal Solanki, Stephen Burks and writer Michelle Ogundehin.
Her work is now set to be shown at the Design Museum this summer.
“Lulu Harrison’s methodology for developing Thames Glass is incredible,” the jury said. “She’s a great researcher and communicator, both in terms of mapping the raw materials that goes into making the glass and visualising it for an audience to make it easy to understand. We were really blown away by the quality of her work.”
The glass designer works with waste materials from the River Thames, including local sand samples, waste shells, and waste wood ash or bracken from the surrounding forests, to create her pieces.
“As a researcher and maker in sustainable material development, I’m interested in creating glass artefacts inspired by primitive glass making and working with local and waste resources, with as little impact on the environment as possible,” she said in a statement.
“It is incredibly exciting to have my work recognised in this way and to challenge traditional norms of what design can be,” Harrison added.
“My work is driven by research, process, collaboration, experimentation and hands-on making, connecting the worlds of craft and science, and resulting in sustainable and localised possibilities for the future of glass-making.”
Some of the materials that Harrison uses in her work would normally go to landfill, such as the quagga mussel shells that also routinely block water pipes.
Her designs draw on “the localised nature of historical glass production – in particular the Forest Glass era of late medieval northwestern and central Europe,” Harrison said.
“This was a period when glass was often crafted using local resources from the surrounding environment, such as sand, trees, ferns, wood and clay.”
Harrison beat a shortlist comprised of Ella Bulley, Sarah Brunnhuber, Samy Rio, and Johanna Seeleman to win the prize, which includes a £10,000 bursary to support her work.
The Ralph Saltzman Prize was founded by Lisa Saltzman in recognition of her father, Ralph Saltzman, co-founder of Designtex. It supports designers who have started their own practice in the past five years and are innovative when it comes to manufacturing and material use.
Previous winners include Spanish designer Attua Aparicio and Italian designer Marco Campardo. Nottingham furniture designer Mac Collins was the inaugural winner of the prize.
The photography is courtesy of Lulu Harrison.
Thames Glass will be exhibited at the Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, London, from 23 June to 25 August. For more information about events, exhibitions and talks, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
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