My grandparents never threw anything out. The scorched and dented enamel pots in which they served us oatmeal; the chipped ceramic mugs from which we drank our first cups of tea; the wooden toy cars from which we tore the wheels… They carefully stacked all the worn and useless objects on shelves in their basement. Whenever I visited my grandparents I went down into the basement to see what was new in their “storehouse of curiosities.” I wondered if their custom of putting useless things on the basement shelf was an early symptom of compulsive hoarding. Or perhaps, in storing objects that were a part of their everyday life, they wanted to hold onto the memories that went with them?

When my grandparents died, I did not clean out the basement. I borrowed its “treasures” for my designs. I use glass to immortalize the objects that accompanied them in their daily lives. And though for us they have no material value, they hold memories that are sparked in our minds when we rediscover them. Like OLD VESSELS…

design by Sebastian Pietkiewicz