Master glassworkers Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin have been working together for nearly 40 years. Can you imagine? The duo met in art school in Sweden in 1980, and they’ve been making glass together ever since. After much trial and error, they developed a technique of layering color through blown overlays, then cutting away layers to reveal new color combination. Though it developed organically, they later learned that they had reinvented a technique called Italian cutting, which was popular in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.
“We came to Italian cutting techniques because we felt we had discovered a new way to expand dramatically on what we were already doing – using sandblasting as a way to cut through layers of color to create new and originally inspired patterns and ideas.
“We share an instinctive appreciation for the subtle blending of art and design, functionality and abstract expression, combined with a love of material – especially glass. Over time our work has developed its own distinctive signature, based in Italian cutting techniques ‘battuto’ combined with Swedish overlay and an exuberant use of colour. Colour, light, texture, pattern, and shape together allow us to reveal an undercurrent of meaning and value.”
-Guggisberg and Baldwin
Baldwin and Guggisberg don’t limit themselves to just making beautiful, artistic glass vessels. They have also produced tableware, mobiles, sculpture, and huge installations. And they’re not just creative with their work. The pair considers themselves somewhat nomadic: after school in Sweden, they moved to Switzerland, then Paris, and they are currently working in rural Wales.
You can see all the wonderful work by Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin on their website and on Instagram.
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My OBT 
October 12, 2019 at 7:18 am
Beautiful work but a little to modern for me.
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October 12, 2019 at 10:57 am
Understood. I like the modern shapes with the traditional finishes.
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October 12, 2019 at 5:58 pm
These are glorious. I love the shapes. They make me think of the shapes that the globby stuff forms in lava lamps – maybe because they have a generally very 60s/70s vibe.
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October 12, 2019 at 9:49 pm
Same! That’s the perfect analogy. Even the colors are kind of trippy-lava-lampy.
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