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Article by Anastassiya Grinina

When glass designer DROZHDINI first encountered a pile of discarded wooden moulds on the floor of a Murano factory, he saw more than scraps. Burnt, cracked, and embedded with history, they held the potential for a new type of form-making — one where the glass would not only respond to the mould but absorb its marks, its memory.

That moment became the foundation for Venezia, a series of modular blown glass vases created in close collaboration with Wave Murano Glass. Produced entirely on the island of Murano, the series explores how traditional tools — charred wooden moulds, open furnaces, muscle memory — can be used to create contemporary sculptural objects.

Material Tension and Technical Risk

The Venezia vases are made using a layered blowing process. Each vessel is composed of two stacked volumes, often with charred wood segments integrated between or inside the glass itself. Unlike industrial mould-blowing, the forms are guided by hand. The moulds burn and collapse as the object takes shape. The glass captures these imperfections — uneven walls, trapped bubbles, smoky textures — as part of its expressive identity.

We worked closely with Roberto Beltrami and his team at Wave Murano Glass, a workshop known not only for its mastery but for its innovations in energy efficiency and material experimentation. Their furnaces run year-round, and their approach allows for responsiveness — one of the reasons the collaboration worked.

Each vase is the result of a collective choreography: gaffer, assistant, re-heater, and coldworker all involved. Some pieces failed, others transformed mid-process. That unpredictability was embraced.

Why the Mould Matters

One of the most distinctive elements of the Venezia process is that we preserved the wooden moulds — in some cases, even presenting them alongside the glass in exhibitions. For us, they are not just tools, but part of the artwork’s narrative.

The choice to use reclaimed, scorched wood was deliberate. These moulds came from factory floors and retired studios. Some were cracked beyond usability. By reactivating them in the furnace — allowing them to smoke, splinter, and scorch again — the glass retained not just their shape, but their history.

From Workshop to Exhibition

The first versions of Venezia were shown at Rossana Orlandi Gallery in Milan. In 2025, we brought the newest pieces to Collect at Somerset House, where they were presented as part of our gallery’s curated installation. Visitors were often surprised to learn that these forms were not cast, but blown — and that their surface details were not decorative, but embedded through contact, fire, and collapse.

We documented the process throughout: the orange glow of the gather, the soot-stained moulds, the moment of lift-off from the pontil. These photographs are not simply archive material — they’re a way to show the labour, risk, and teamwork that glassblowing requires.

Continuing the Work

As curator and trained designer, my role was to shape the narrative — to help the object retain its origin story, not just its form. We continue to develop new Venezia works with Wave Murano Glass, each slightly different, slightly unstable. That’s what keeps the work alive.

In a world that often celebrates polished results, Venezia reminds us that surface is memory, and that even fire can leave a trace of care.

Credits

Project: Venezia (2024–2025)

Artist: DROZHDINI

Curator, creative direction, photography: Anastassiya Grinina

Gallery: NM Art & Design nmartd.com

Production: Wave Murano Glass (Murano, Italy)

Lead gaffer: Roberto Beltrami

About the Artist

DROZHDINI is a multidisciplinary artist and designer working primarily with glass. His practice lies at the intersection of contemporary form and traditional technique, often informed by deep material research and sculptural experimentation.

He is known for combining transparent blown glass with scorched wooden moulds, preserving the traces of fire, texture, and structural residue within each object. His work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the permanent collection of Sforza Castle in Milan. Since 2021, he has been represented by Spazio Rossana Orlandi, where his Venezia collection was first shown during Milan Design Week in collaboration with Wave Murano Glass.

DROZHDINI’s approach foregrounds process over perfection — honouring the collective labour of glassblowing while challenging traditional hierarchies between design, art, and craft.

About the Author

Anastassiya Grinina is a curator and art director focused on collectible design and material-led practices. She leads the curatorial direction of NM Art & Design, an international gallery presenting experimental work by contemporary designers and artisans. Her projects explore the emotional memory of materials and the intersection of craft, narrative, and form.

About the Workshop

Wave Murano Glass is a contemporary glass workshop based on the island of Murano (Venice), founded in 2017 by master glassblower Roberto Beltrami. Known for blending centuries-old techniques with technological innovation, the studio produces custom works for artists, designers, and leading international brands. It is the only Murano furnace equipped with a heat recuperation system, reducing energy consumption while maintaining traditional 24/7 production.

Wave Murano Glass is a certified member of the Vetro Artistico® di Murano mark, ensuring authenticity and full on-island fabrication. For the Venezia project, the team worked closely with the artist and curator to develop new forms, embrace risk, and document the collaborative nature of contemporary glassmaking.

On August 19, the Lithuanian Artists’ Association gallery Art Kiosk (Vokiečių St. 4, Vilnius) will open the exhibition of the latest works by glass artist Viktoras Dailidėnas, titled Glass Exhibition X. The exhibition represents the artist’s conceptual vision, where glass is interpreted not merely as a material substance but as a multilayered semiotic medium, capable of articulating emotional, narrative, and symbolic dimensions while integrating interactions between materiality, form, and light.

“I aim to give ordinary glass a new life, so that it speaks to the viewer and begins to tell a story. For me, glass is not only a material but also a metaphor: the interplay of fragility and strength, moments of temporal flow and instantaneous perception, a dialogue between the visible and the invisible. Each relief, each expression of form becomes an autonomous space, intertwining nature-inspired motifs, human emotions, and collective memory. My goal is to create a visual language that invites contemplation, reflection, and an experience of the polysemy of glass—both conceptually and emotionally,” says Viktoras Dailidėnas.

Glass Exhibition X emerges at a time when contemporary glass art increasingly transcends the boundaries of applied arts and establishes itself as an autonomous form of contemporary sculpture. In recent decades, glass, long associated with stained glass, decorative objects, or interior elements, has become more conceptual and experimental. Within this context, Viktoras Dailidėnas occupies a distinctive position, utilizing the physical properties of the material to open new avenues of interpretation.

The works presented in the exhibition reflect not only the technical maturity of the artist but also his ideological orientation. Here, glass functions as a profound metaphorical layer—its transparency and fragility remind viewers of temporality, while monumental, relief-like surfaces convey the sensation of time made tangible. Dailidėnas’s works encourage the viewer to pause, examine surface details, observe the play of light and contrasts of texture, and discover symbolic content.

Glass Exhibition X also serves as a creative laboratory, where the artist combines diverse techniques, experiments with oxidation effects, and explores the optical and plastic qualities of glass surfaces. This approach generates a multilayered visual experience where technology, aesthetics, and philosophical inquiry converge.

A significant element of the exhibition is the motif of nature and life. These motifs are not merely decorative but conceptual: plant forms serve as metaphors for the cycle of life, while the stability of glass contrasts with the dynamic transformation of organic nature. This tension between static and dynamic imparts an inner energy to the works.

The exhibition also establishes a dialogue with the Lithuanian Symbolist tradition, particularly the poetic language of M. K. Čiurlionis. Dailidėnas does not replicate direct references but assimilates the atmosphere, color relationships, and metaphorical potency of his work, creating a bridge between different artistic epochs—the Symbolism of the late 19th century and 21st-century contemporary glass art.

Ultimately, Glass Exhibition X is an invitation to reconsider our relationship with space and material. Each work becomes a distinct “spatial stop,” where glass not only reflects the environment but also immerses the viewer in an internal narrative dictated by the material itself. The exhibition can be experienced visually, emotionally, and intellectually—as a multilayered creative diary captured in glass.

About the Artist:
Viktoras Dailidėnas, born in 1979 in Panevėžys, is a cultivator of the “language of glass.” His creative environment was nurtured from early childhood, growing up in the family of artists Jonas and Lidija Dailidėnas. Initially studying ceramics, he later expanded his artistic scope to glass—a capricious material that he came to love through technical curiosity and years of study.

He graduated from Kaunas J. Vienožinskis College (Glass Technology), mastering blowing, fusing, and casting techniques, and deepened his artistic focus at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, obtaining a Bachelor’s (2004) and Master’s (2006) degree in stained glass.

Since 1997, Dailidėnas has actively participated in prestigious glass art exhibitions and symposiums in Lithuania and abroad, including Germany (Glassbrucke Berlin, The Baltic Way), Latvia (Voice of Glass), the USA (Contemporary Craft Show), and exhibition cycles such as Vitrum Balticum and Glass Age. He is particularly known as one of Lithuania’s experimentalists in architectural glass, merging conceptual art with technical precision, thereby creating a lasting contribution to the field.

Since 2009, he has been a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association, and since 2016, an active collaborator of the National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries. Together with his wife, designer Laura Dailidėnienė, he develops the brand Laura Daili Vilnius, combining glass art and design in international exhibitions.

Another of the artist’s pursuits is the fusion of bonsai and glass vessels—a project of dialogue between art and nature. By using glass containers for shaping bonsai trees, he reflects on life and the subtle aesthetic connection between creative practice and nature.

Opening: August 19, 19:00
Location: Lithuanian Artists’ Association Gallery Art Kiosk, Vokiečių St. 4, Vilnius
Exhibition runs until: September 1

Author:  Echo Gone Wrong @echogonewrong