Minimalism is often our go-to aesthetic when it comes to furnishing and decorating a room – it’s neat, calm and fuss-free. But even more often than not, it misses a sort of magic and wonder. Lucky for us, it is an easy fix with just one or two statement pieces to spark life into our homes and our newest brand partner – SkLO – has just the stuff.
With studios in Northern California and the Czech Republic, SkLO specialises in handblown glass lighting and art decorations that combine both modern Californian design sensibilities with the traditional Czechian glass blowing.
SkLO’s designs are colourful and whimsical yet restrained, which is very much in line with the brand’s philosophy to achieve the simplest expressions of beauty while respecting the generational craft of Czech glass.
Czech glass is renowned for its remarkable quality in strength and stability due to the abundance of raw materials from the country, which makes it ideal for cutting and moulding. This led centuries of workers to hone techniques such as painted and mould-melted glass on top of glass blowing.
The founders of this studio are a husband and wife duo – Paul Pavlak and Karen Gilbert – whose mastery of their individual fields of technical and artistic design led them to this venture along with the managing director Pavel Hanousek.
The dynamic shapes and movement present in SkLO’s lines stems from Karen’s knack for merging unique languages and shapes of the artificial and natural world, which comes as no surprise as she was trained in metallurgy and glasswork at the California College of Art and the Pilchuk Glass School.
Of course, the artistic element is just half the battle. The other half of the duo, Paul, focuses on the finer details and technical documentation of the entire collection with his background in architecture.
Glass blowing is intrinsically unpredictable and every single piece has to be handcrafted by the masters. Thus, every design ends up being unique and it celebrates the irregularities that are a testament to the years of learning and practice ingrained into the capable hands of those making it.
SkLO also operates with sustainability in mind“You can’t tell glass what to do. The unique ability to capture moments in time within glass is what makes the material special,” says Paul.. Not only are products made to stand against the test of time, reducing waste, but they are mainly made of brass and glass, which are totally recyclable. “You can’t tell glass what to do. The unique ability to capture moments in time within glass is what makes the material special,” says Paul.
Additionally, about 80 percent of the components are made in-house with the brass being machined and fabricated into part and silica being melted into the glass. This further exemplifies the extreme level of care for the details that make SkLO’s glass lighting and objects that much more special.
SkLO coming soon to Galerie 5. Contact info@solluminaire.com for pre-orders.
