Nexus Designs x Leisa Wharington

“It’s the immediacy. You need to work really fast because it feels like it’s alive.” So says Leisa Wharington, the sole designer and maker behind The Glass Studio, of the thrill of hand-blowing glass in a hot furnace. 

Inspired by nature and organic forms, her work is a reflection of the beauty and serenity of her surroundings on the Mornington Peninsula in regional Victoria. “Nature is just an endless inspiration on our back door. I’m not a religious person, but it’s something that I worship.” Sharing a similar passion for the colours and textures of the natural world, Nexus Designs commissioned Wharington to create a series of glass bowls to be treasured as distinctive objects, each unique as they are handmade one by one.

The brief was to create artisanal vessels that evoked the spirit and passion of our interiors – light filled, uplifting, transformative and celebrating Australian colour. The creative journey began with a visit to Wharington’s studio, where we learned more about her practice, in particular how colour and form can be manipulated with heat. To attain a unique effect for our vessel, Wharington used a “double bubble” technique of making a single bubble then splitting it and layering it back upon itself to create varying intensities of colour.

“It’s a very simple, elegant shape and when you look into it, it looks like the ribs of a whale.”

The collaboration with The Glass Studio is the first of a series of ongoing partnerships Nexus Designs is undertaking to enrich its connections to the art and design communities, which Wharington also supports through the Studio & Co, a separate large-scale space she opened in January allowing creatives to rent studios and work on the Mornington Peninsula.

Image credits: Bowls photographed by Mark Lobo at Foliolio. Studio images by Peter Marko.