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Mindblowing glass

Go to Glassics if you want to pick up a glass washbasin or separator screen for your home. Or simply a small planter

It's through a well-structured glass door that you walk into Glassics. Enter the outlet, and you are literally floored by a stunning array of glass in various shapes, forms and hues. Some of the textures and designs leave you speechless.

Attractive designs

Glassics offers a fantastic range of glassware that extends from artefacts to entire glass structures for interiors — panels, doors, even parts of walls. Cunningly structured glass partitions that look like flowing water, pieces of glass deftly stacked to make a glass wall, strips of slumped glass arranged at an angle to provide a partition that permits ventilation without sacrificing privacy, intricate designs embossed on sheets of glass through multi-layered etching and cluster work are some of the pieces that catch your attention.

Says Anita Shrishrimal, Proprietor, Glassics: "The potential of glass is amazing and its use immense. Its diverse manifestation is restricted only by our imagination and skill."

So you could have a sofa set made of glass or a bar cabinet whose glass top resembles a melting block of ice.

You could also go in for a writing table in glass with complementing glass holders and trays to keep things in.

If you are tired of having centre tables and coffee tables fusing glass with wood or metal, you could go in for one that is completely made of glass. The glass tabletop is delicately balanced on pieces of glass.

But wouldn't balancing on pieces of glass make it fragile and unusable? No, says Anita, and invites me to sit on one of them to demonstrate their sturdiness.

Besides furniture, there are plenty of finely-structured bowls and other artefacts that have been crafted to not only feature as pieces of art but also lend functionality. "These bowls and platters are designed explicitly to have utility value. They can be used for multiple purposes or displayed simply as pieces of art," says Anita.

She explains how a lot of experimentation and R&D goes into structuring each of the glass pieces. "Depending on the requirement and ambience to be fitted into, the design is worked out. The structure and design of the glass for the interiors comes under various categories. Depending on the requirement, the glass can be slumped in a furnace job. Or it can have multi-layered etching or cluster work. Or it can be stained. It can also be shattered glass where a sheet of glass is sandwiched between two others and the middle piece is shattered." The end effect of a shattered glass is dramatic.

There is also the mesh glass to be fitted into the pooja area to "allow the doors to breathe".

Fusion with metal

Glassics has also tried to bring about a fusion of glass with metal, clay and aluminium. An aluminium foil fused into the glass gives the impression of mustard seeds embedded into it. "At high temperatures, the foil burns and fuses and with the air bubbles, it appears like mustard seeds," says Anita.

A beautiful clay Ganesha embedded in glass captures the eye. "Ever since we did this piece, we have been trying unsuccessfully to repeat this process. Every time, the clay breaks. But we are still trying and hope to make a breakthrough."

Besides glass partitions, even doors can be fashioned in glass. A glass washbasin resting in a corner draws attention. "Using too much glass may not be advisable as it could spoil the aesthetics. It needs to be used prudently, based on requirement and décor and structured to make a statement," cautions Anita.

Glassics is located on Hosur Road, Koramangala and can be contacted on 25504899.

NANDHINI SUNDAR

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