How Atelier Lucile Viaud turns shells, algae, and more, into glass

After traveling the world, the glass decors designed by Lucile Viaud for Cartier’s boutiques will return to Dinan, Brittany, where the French artist has her studio. For a year, her work served as a showcase for the maison’s latest high jewelry collection. Their return to the fold is part of the "eco-pact" between Cartier and Viaud: at the end of their journey, the glass pieces were to be remelted and recycled, to integrate new creations. At Cartier, of course!

The jeweler opted for Viaud’s very first formula, Glaz: micro-bubble marine glass made from oyster shells from Brittany’s Morbihan region, abalone from Plouguerneau, and microalgae. Midway between green and blue, Glaz recounts the Breton seaside’s muted blues and azure greens.

Atelier Lucile Viaud's marine glass Glaz contains microalgae, oyster shell and abalone ©Atelier Lucile Viaud

At Atelier Lucile Viaud, each glass has its own story. Or rather, its own territory, which it embodies. Contrary to the industrial standards of luxury goods—transparency, homogeneity and purity—the material's (natural) coloring and imperfections bear witness to the artist’s travels.

Mapping resource(s)

Viaud rethinks the material down to its very composition. And, in so doing, adding meaning that makes all the difference. It's an approach dubbed "geo-glassmaking". "It's not just a question of finding 'alternatives' to the sand, soda, chemical potash and calcium that go into making conventional glass," explains Viaud. "I work like a cartographer, spending a lot of time in the field identifying and collecting materials waiting to be recycled. I develop glass formulas from these deposits, but I don't interfere with color or texture. The only criterion is the material's suitability for processing using traditional techniques (blowing, thermoforming, fusing, casting, extruding, etc.). Once again, it's the territory that speaks through the glass. And from one glass to the next, in her kiln Viaud archives bits of land where humans have left their mark.

For glassmaker Lucile Viaud, terrain is an integral part of her glass recipes ©Atelier Lucile Viaud

Materials as source of inspirations

This is illustrated by another glass from the Atelier, Rouergue, whose ebony coloring is inspired by the Aveyron landscapes, and which mixes sand from the Lot region and firewood ash (recovered from the Truyère valley) with snail shells that the artist tracked down at a local heliciculturist's shop. For the record, the sand used to make the glass was stored for 50 years by a private individual who had bought it for the sole purpose of helping a member of his family who had no other means of subsistence than selling sand by the boatload, Viaud recounts.

"For me, the material is everything. I came to the realization when I was still at school (at Ecole Boulle) that I had to start from the material to imagine the object, and not the other way round. The material dictates the form."

For the new Ponant inter-island glass recipe, due to go into production this year, Viaud used excavated sand from a social housing building site on the island of Hoëdic. The glass will also incorporate ash from local canning factories (on the islands of Yeu and Groix) and used diving filters (manufactured on Ouessant). These will be melted in a new more energy-efficient furnace: "We designed it ourselves," explains Viaud, "Tests carried out on this first prototype, over-insulated with lime and hemp, are conclusive: our furnace enables us to reduce our gas consumption by 35%."

At Atelier Lucie Viaud, glass takes on a myriad of forms ©Germain Herriau

In the footsteps of Cartier

After Cartier, further collaborations between Atelier Lucile Viaud and luxury brands are in the making. This includes formulating glass from the Charente region with co-products from the distillation of spirits. In the meantime, the artist's creations—distributed under the brand name Ostraco—can be found in museums, chapels and luxury boutiques, as well as on the tables of a host of Michelin-starred chefs (Jérôme Banctel, Mauro Colagreco, Virginie Giboire...). Under each numbered piece, vase, flask, goblet or hand-blown civet, a small sandblasted or hand-engraved label indicates which glass was used, as well as the date and place of melting.

"Glass is infinitely recyclable," points out Lucile, "and in the event of breakage, fragments can be sent back to us, indicating the references of the source glass, so that it can be remelted". This is a variation on the deposit principle, since the price of the material is deducted from any new order. It's also about economy, as Viaud's production is closely linked to the availability of resources: 1.3 tons for Rouergue glass, but only 50 to 100kg per year for Ponant glass. "My types of glass are highly contextualized and are not intended to be 'scalable'. It's the availability of the material that sets the tempo," she concludes.

Each of Lucie Viaud's glass recipes integrate material from a specific location, such as the Ponant islands ©Eric Alibert