Sustainability

Our approach to sustainability, upcycling and making something extraordinary from glass that already has a story.

At Hanscomb Glass Studio, we've always believed that beautiful things don't necessarily have to begin with something new. Since opening our doors in 1983, finding creative ways to reuse, rethink and transform glass has been part of who we are and how we work.

For us, sustainability isn't a new direction or a passing trend. It's a principle that has grown alongside our studio, influencing the materials we choose, the techniques we develop and the art we create.
And perhaps the most exciting part? Some of our favourite pieces began with something that might otherwise have been thrown away.

Seeing Possibility in the Everyday Things

An empty bottle, the stem of a broken wine glass, a pre-loved lamp, a forgotten piece of window glass. To most people, these are everyday objects that have served their purpose. To us, they're materials full of possibilities. Over the years, we've learned to see the glass around us as our creative palette. We smash it, melt it, slump it, reshape it and combine it in unexpected ways. We draw on decades of glass working experience, sometimes adapting familiar techniques and sometimes inventing entirely new approaches to work with what we have.

It might surprise you, but working with upcycled glass is often more challenging than starting with new materials. Rather than simply choosing the perfect sheet of glass for a design, we have to understand what an existing piece can do, work around its limitations and occasionally rethink the entire idea.

But that's where things get interesting.

A particular shape, texture or fragment can inspire something we never would have imagined otherwise. Some of our most loved designs exist precisely because we had an unusual piece of glass in front of us and decided to see what we could make of it.

The Art Comes First

While upcycling is an important part of our work, we've never wanted it to define how people first experience our art. Whether it's a small decorative piece, a functional item for your home or a large commissioned glass window, we want you to notice the design, the light, the texture and the artistry before anything else. The fact that a piece was once a gin bottle, a discarded window or part of an old lamp should be an interesting part of its story, not the first thing you see.

Our goal isn't simply to make things out of used glass. It's to make beautiful glasswork that happens to have a past.

That distinction is important to us. Thoughtful design, technical skill and craftsmanship should never take second place to the materials we use. In fact, working with repurposed glass often pushes us to be even more inventive.

Always Experimenting, Always Learning

One of the wonderful things about working with glass is that even after more than four decades, there's still so much to discover. We've experimented with everything from old Perrier bottles to glass combined with cement bases. We've even explored firing glass against natural linden leaves, allowing the delicate textures and patterns of the leaves to leave their impression on the finished surface.

Not every experiment works. Some lead nowhere, others open the door to an entirely new collection or technique. But that curiosity is what keeps our studio moving forward.

Over the past year, we've been making a conscious effort to move further away from relying on newly manufactured glass, finding more opportunities to work with reclaimed and existing materials instead and aim by the coming year to use exclusively upcycled glass.

It isn't always the quickest or easiest approach, but it continues to shape the way we think about our work.

Making More With What We Have

We believe that a successful creative studio should be able to balance beautiful design, thoughtful use of materials and a sustainable business. For us, that means reducing avoidable waste, finding value in materials that already exist and creating pieces that people genuinely want to bring into their homes and enjoy for years.

It's about making good use of what we have without compromising the quality of what we produce. From a small ornament to a major architectural commission, every project presents a new opportunity to think a little differently about glass.

And ultimately, that's what Hanscomb Glass has always been about: curiosity, craftsmanship and the endless possibilities of a remarkable material.