The Sílice Glassware Series

A series of organic objects made with an experimental glass-blowing technique.

Based on a concept by Caterina Moretti, founder of Mexican design practice Peca, Sílice is an artistic glassware collection. The series explores the bonds between art, craft, and design. To create the range, Caterina Moretti collaborated with artists José Miguel Gómez and Diego Vides Borell. The trio used a combination of wooden molds and free glass-blowing methods for Sílice. “By way of extensive exploration, we have discovered that the possibilities for creating shapes that are both structured yet non-preconceived, can be infinite,” says Caterina Moretti.

The cylindrical objects have different heights and sizes, but all of them share a similar hybrid design. While one side – the bottom or the top – features a ribbed pattern, the other is more organic and irregular. Every glass object came to life through a special, experimental technique; the team used molds made of wooden rods and a free glass-blowing method.

The collection comprises six main typologies, created using different techniques. For some designs, placing the mold on the floor, blowing the glass into it and then immediately breathing on top of the glass helped to create asymmetrical shapes. For other designs, artisans took ring shapes left over from finished glassware and used them as bases for organic glass objects, while for others they combined two slightly offset molds. The Sílice series comprises glass items in clear, smoked, or amber colors, as well as objects in two-tone palettes. Photographs© Peca.