The Irish glassmakers and renowned artist and designer have teamed up on a collection of playful cocktail glasses.
Known for their beautifully-crafted glassware, Co Waterford’s J. Hill’s Standard has worked with Irish artist and fashion designer Richard Malone to create a collection of cocktail glasses. Entitled “The Misfits”, it comprises three glasses, each unique and intentionally carrying a trace of the human hand, as well as “a notion of devilment”.
We chatted to Richard about the collaboration to find out more.
What do you love about collaborating on a project like this?
You enter into a project like this with trust, and a mutual understanding that creative solutions are welcome. We both work with a material that is hard to grasp and solidify, for me it could be fabric or steel or plaster, and for J.Hill’s, glass and ceramic. So the middle ground needs to be discovered through making, you can’t make a moodboard or draw references for something you need to invent and dedicate time to. It’s a tonic to the endless feed of prefabricated marketing material we’re sold.
How did you find working with glass as opposed to the other materials you have used in the past?
I think you approach it with honesty – understanding you are not an expert but that also has its own positive attributes – everything seems possible. Trying to get these honest, totemic forms that also feel active, and characterful and unique – not trying to be overly decorative with cutting or decoration. The form and how you hold it in your hand is incredibly personal, and also seductive and desirable. It has to feel good and robust and individual.
Craft is so important to this collaboration, why is this a priority for you?
I think it’s a human instinct. There isn’t a line between art and craft for me, it comes down to dedication. In craft there are also hundreds of years of history and expertise, cultural significance, place, it’s the opposite of mass production – it’s considered and is a gesture from a pair of human hands to another, to this day it can never ever be replicated quickly or on demand. The things that are made quickly and mass produced – from cheap garments to beauty packaging – are made with the scrap heap in mind. These objects are made with people in mind, and sustaining that connection as best we can.
I love the idea of creating a sense of mischief in an inanimate object, can you tell me more about why you wanted to do this?
It’s part of my nature. The objects misbehave in how they fit into what Irish glass or crystal should look like – which was often defined by colonial tastes and aristocracy. These feel sculpted and ancient and modern at the same time. They are honest about what they’re made of and incredibly pleasing to use, they also look active – or full of life as opposed to decorative. They should be used, even as a set of three that’s odd, traditionally crystal is sets of four or six or eight or more, made for some hypothetical dinner party you’re never going to have. I like that you can buy one for yourself, keep it cold and have a freezing martini in it for your own pleasure only.
What is your favourite aspect of the collection?
Every one is unique. There are three gestures but within that there are sleights of hand or colour that make each piece exceptional, in the way that humans are and often trained not to be. I love as well that they look like they might be dancing with each other or jumping at each other. It’s taken a couple of years but I think they are exactly how they were meant to me and I love using them.
“The Misfits” collection is €95 per glass, €285 for a set of three, available from jhillsstandard.com.
Photography Faolán Carey