Glass Bubble Bowl by Seiten

These glass bowls were made at Glass Studio Seiten, on the island of Okinawa.

Glass of the type made at Seiten by Kiyoharu Matsuda and his team, is known as saisei glass. Saisei literally means ‘reborn’, and in glass it refers to a process to melt and recreate empty drinks bottles into beautiful forms.

Blended for texture and colour, the glass is heated from fragments, before being blown and swirled into new shapes.

With bubbles visible within the glass from the blowing process, these are relatively small bowls for the table.

Saisei glass has deep connection to Okinawa’s post war history, as craftspeople used the materials they could find to create a new lineage in glass. The results today refract sunlight, and seem somehow to encapsulate it within their material.

Kiyoharu Matsuda as a peripatetic artisan in glass on Okinawa, who has now established his home at Seitan, is a representative of this reborn tradition. His items are a pleasure to use.

They are 13cm wide, and around 5.5cm high.

They weigh around 300g.

As all are handmade, each piece is slightly different.