Whether you are creating a dinner party extravaganza for friends or just a simple dinner for the family, nothing livens up your cooking more than fresh herbs. But growing fresh herbs takes time and a lot of space doesn’t it?
Not any more with this wonderful idea for a window-ledge herb garden from our friends at Design Sponge. Using discarded bottles, you can create a self-watering herb garden that will be the envy of your neighbours. You will need at least one wine bottle, a small piece of mesh, some string and your favourite herbs. Take a look at the easy instructions on Design Sponge and share your results with us on our Facebook page.
Remember how bored you used to get as a child on those long, hot summer drives? Well there is no need for your children to get bored this summer with these brilliant do-it-yourself ‘I Spy’ bottles from Counting Coconuts.
Simply find a few small empty glass bottles and fill with rice until about two-thirds full. Then add some beads, buttons, or letters to the jar, seal and shake. Glue the lid on and your very own I Spy bottle is ready for the trip!
Mari-Ann has loads of ideas for fillings and how you can turn the bottle into an educational experience for your child. They work well on flights also.
International designer Karl Lagerfeld is officially a true Friend of Glass! He has extended his creative design experiences with a new range of crystal glasses for Orrefors. With years of experience designing fashion, perfumes and accessories, the Orrefors collection represents Lagerfeld’s first foray into glass design.
Available in white, black or clear glass, the range features champagne flutes and coupes as well as wine, water and liqueur glasses. Known for his practicality, Lagerfeld has also created monogrammed coasters for each type of glass to ensure no condensation or spilt wine will spoil your table setting.
Watch the video to find out more about the designs and why Karl Lagerfeld believes there is no place for plastic glasses in your home!
New York’s Mondrian SoHo hotel features one of the most beautiful breakfast rooms we have ever seen – the Imperial No. Nine restaurant. Designed as a modern interpretation of a greenhouse, the restaurant features a glass roof which allows natural light to filter through to the stone floor. The room is furnished with glass chandeliers, and a stunning centrepiece sculpture by glass artist Beth Lipman. At night the breakfast room turns into a glittering restaurant and bar.
As part of its Inspired Creations competition, Elizabeth Anne Design has unveiled the ultimate wedding theme for the bride who does not have a lot to spend on decoration. Many of the pieces in the design are sourced from thrift shops. The beautiful glasses on the table and the mirrors reflect and accentuate the shimmering light from the candles. Crystal-encrusted tea light holders on the table add yet another dimension to the setting.
The Friends of Glass website has a number of inspiring table setting designs for you to try. You can also upload your own. We would love to see them.
The main part of the museum was created from the old glass melting workshop of the Shanghai Glass Co., Ltd. The company initiated the SHMOG project and provided funding and the building.
The architectural design team was headed by Tilman Thuermer from Germany. Glass is used extensively to provide a dramatic backdrop to the permanent and visiting collections. The enamelled glass used on the museum’s facade is inscribed with glass-industry terms in ten languages and looks amazing day and night!
SHMOG has some noble goals including to create a new kind of museum experience, and to contract the distance between China and the West and between glass art and other artistic forms. To help achieve these goals, the Shanghai University is providing academic and artistic support to SHMOG. There are also plans to turn the area around the museum into a theme park for glass which will be known as G+.
New Zealand brewer Tui is to introduce a new beer bottle with a ‘vortex internal neck.’ The spiral embossing inside the neck effectively reinvigorates the beer as it is poured. From 6 June, Tui’s Blond Lager will be marketed in the new bottle.
Tui claims that the technology was invented to replicate the effect of pouring a beer into a glass as most New Zealanders now drink beer directly from the bottle. US-based brewer MillersCoors utilised a similar vortex necked bottle for its Miller Lite brand last year.
Not sure about you, but we still prefer our beer in a glass! What do you prefer?
Here’s good news for fans of the red stuff: Heinz has recently announced that it will package it’s much-loved tomato sauce in limited edition, vintage design glass bottle (pictured).
Although this move is for the US market only, let’s hope that it travels to Europe fast.
Heinz has given a nod to the past and announced that it will package its ketchup in classic glass bottles in the US.
The limited edition glass bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup features a vintage-inspired design to “bring some nostalgia to the summer barbecue season”.
The symbolic Coca-Cola glass bottle, equally as famous as the soft drink itself, is making a comeback!
The unique design of the Coca-Cola glass bottle was created in 1915, when the Coca-Cola Company launched a competition among its bottle suppliers to create a new bottle for the beverage that would distinguish it from other bottles.
The specification given to the designers was to craft, “a bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark”.
Something that seemed an impossible challenge back then can now be described as one of the best examples of distinctive branding.
The so called “contour” design, also known as the “hobble skirt” can be easily crowned as the world’s most recognised glass bottle.
To mark its 125th anniversary the company decided to roll out a new multi-platform “retro” campaign and we love the idea of a limited edition Coca-Cola glass bottle range. These special edition bottles (pictured) will be available to buy at Selfridges.
Just thinking about it now, what could be a better drink for a hot summer’s day than a chilled glass bottle of Coca-Cola, right?
Quick: think of your favourite soy sauce. Can you picture the shape of the bottle?
More likely than not, you’ll be thinking of the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle (pictured), designed in 1961 by Japanese designer Kenji Ekuan.
The brand recently celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the iconic bottle, samples of which are now also housed in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
“Design is the source for the improvement of life” – this is the motto of the celebrated Japanese industrial designer Kenji Ekuan who has played an important role in the Japanese designs for packaging and logos. One of his most well-known designer pieces is the Kikkoman dining table bottle. The classic bottle, which holds around 150ml of the good black stuff, not only looks good, but has function at it’s heart. With the round sport, even small drops of soy sauce can be poured without dripping.
Whether you are creating a dinner party extravaganza for friends or just a simple dinner for the family, nothing livens up your cooking more than fresh herbs. But growing fresh herbs takes time and a lot of space doesn’t it?
What do you prefer?
The symbolic 
The brand recently celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the iconic bottle, samples of which are now also housed in the permanent design collection of the 
