Guest Maker: Upcycled Glass Company C.I.C.
31st October - TBC
Retail Gallery
Upcycled Glass Company is a new green initiative, which brings together craft, design, upcycling, farming, science and technology.
Launched as a crowdfunder campaign, this community interest company aims to tackle specific problems of making in the climate emergency. The problems we face are multi-layered and we are addressing them with multi layered workable solutions within a new local circular economy. These problems include what to do with commercial waste glass that is not recycled, and how to keep working alongside ever-increasing energy costs.
We are placing craft and sustainable making at the heart of our community, moving away from the import of useful glass products from large-scale unsustainable factories to a network of small environmentally and financially sustainable workshops, linked by new technologies and smart data. We are returning making to the land, producing a new, high tech environmental and financially sustainable business model.
All our materials come from our local area, and our products are destined for local outlets only, taking away the need for importing expensive materials, haulage and delivery vehicles. We are using locally farmed biomaterials to chemically change and improve the glass we are melting from commercial waste, and are working towards the use of biofuel from Brimpts Farm to fuel our equipment with the addition of carbon capture systems. The captured CO2 will go free of charge to a local brewery who will use it within their manufacturing process. We are also providing technical support to the Environment and Sustainability Institute developing concentrator photovoltaic applications. The first concentrated photovoltaic solar panels will be produced, installed and tested at our workshop.
Now that we have our sustainable glass workshop running, we can achieve growth not by consuming more materials in our local environment, but by opening a network of small sustainable workshops around the country.
Glass waste that was destined for landfill
Upcycled glass range for MAKE Southwest
Seaweed glass
We can produce optically perfect glass, but we must realise that the energy costs and emissions more than double if we continue to insist on this. We need to accept the idea of exquisitely made glassware made from an ‘imperfect’ glass with bubbles. We believe that, like organic food, society will accept the vast environmental benefits of this glass and an aesthetic, which is more desirable as it has been mixed and melted by the glassmaker - hand produced in every way.
MAKE Southwest’s Green Maker Initiative (GMI) supports makers on their journey to becoming more sustainable in their creative practice. We also want to champion organisations that are making amazing developments in their given craft discipline – this is why we are very excited to announce that we will be stocking Upcycled Glass Company C.I.C. (UGC) tumblers, glasses and hanging terrariums for the foreseeable future.
UGC are an incredible organisation who are making some amazing developments in the glass industry. Using cutting-edge technology and tried and tested ‘common sense’ glassmaking and farming methodologies (some dating back as far as the 17th century!), they are trying to solve growing ecological problem of what to do with the mountains of end of life building and art glass that cannot be commercially recycled.
The UGC glassware for sale at MAKE Southwest is entirely recycled glass that would have been destined for landfill. The drinking glasses in stock with us are exclusive to MAKE Southwest!
The Local UGC Team
Ian Hankey is a master glassmaker, designer, craft engineer and CAD CAM specialist.
Richard Glass is a master glassmaker and award-winning designer who uses an eclectic mix of traditional and modern techniques to produce highly individual, intricate designs that cannot be made by mass produced manufacturing.
Andrew Bradford and his family run Brimpts Farm, a prize-winning diversification enterprise. His Farm nestles in the heart of the Dartmoor National Park in Devon and has been a Duchy of Cornwall tenant farm since 1307.
Information on UGC’s steering committee/full team can be viewed on their website.
