Curiousa
Esther Patterson
HAND BLOWN GLASS LIGHTING
“We create beautiful hand-made ceramic and free-blown glass lighting and chandeliers that last, bringing joy for generations to come, celebrating and nurturing traditional British craft and skills”.
There is a deeper connection to all things handmade as they speak of the human condition: a desire to create beautiful things from responsive materials. All our glass is free-blown, without the use of moulds, using just the skill of hand and eye to guide each shape. Then these unique pieces are carefully curated and assembled in our Derbyshire workshop with hand-turned wood, bone china or handwoven tassel to create lit forms that complement and delight.
Glass is actually the second career of Esther Patterson, founder and designer of Curiousa. A lifelong creative, she felt unfulfilled as a graphic designer and returned to university to study decorative arts. She was happily pursuing both textiles (for the colours) and bone china (enjoying the forms), when a visit to a local glass blower, Anthony Wassell, showed her a way to marry up both mediums. “It was an amazing eureka moment,” she recalls. “At the time, lighting felt quite masculine in greys and whites, so I thought there might be a niche in the market for some simple but still decorative, lighting forms.”
