Light caught in glass, colour distilled to its essence – Alexander Lamont’s Monochrome Series transforms an ancient craft into a study of serenity. Each vessel, hand-blown and polished over days, speaks of patience, purity, and quiet repositories for stillness. In a world of jarring contrast – between loud graphics and monotoned minimalism; these vessels balance vibrancy and serenity.
Formed from molten glass, shaped by breath and time, they embody a process of transformation: of raw material into layered translucence, of motion into stillness, of creation into contemplation.
Chromatic purity through innovation
The ancient technique of overlay glass demands the same rhythm of patience it reveals in form; a ritual of gathering molten, pigmented glass and layering it through breath and fire. Each piece is shaped while glowing with heat, then cooled slowly over days before being cut and polished by hand using tools once reserved for jade. This choreography of flame, air, and precision turns a raw, fluid mass into an object of luminous restraint: a meditation made tangible.
In Monochrome, this process finds its purest expression. Ancient silhouettes are distilled to their essential outlines, rendered in single, luminous hues. Each piece is an exploration of restraint – where overlay glass captures light not through ornament, but through the quiet radiance of pure colour. Amphora, gourd and teardrops in smooth and faceted forms emerge in striking tones, their luminous layers of glass giving sculptural presence to simplicity itself.
Perfected in the Forbidden City’s imperial glassworks under Emperor Qianlong (1736–1795), the craft once captivated Qing princes for its gem-like luminosity.
Lamont reimagines this tradition with a 21st-century sensibility – transforming vessels once treasured as symbols of refinement into orbits of quiet beauty, objects of contemplation and touch rather than possession.
The Monochrome series brings vivid colour and calm geometry to the Editions Collection – modern treasures that speak not of display, but of intimacy, ritual, and enduring grace.
