Vincent Breed: the Art of Glass Blowing

As a student, Vincent Breed was headed for a career in industrial design when he discovered glass blowing at Strasbourg’s Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 1992. After apprenticing with several master verriers, he opened his own studio in Lyon in 1999, and since then he has worked with a bevy of prominent architects, designers, decorators and fellow artists, including Jean Nouvel and Matali Crasset, for whom he produces prototypes, unique pieces and limited editions. His own signature works—glass sculpture, tableware, light fixtures and other furnishings, even an all-glass Sculpture Club chair—are clean-lined, colorful and witty, with a poetic fancy and a marked preference for undulating sea-creature motifs inspired by his passion for scuba diving. His custom-made chandeliers and other light fixtures have moved into such large dimensions that they often push the limits of blown glass. Among his recent smaller works are brightly-colored, tipsy wineglasses and delicate bell-shaped goblets, decorated with bright red hearts, that sit upside-down in separate cylindrical bases; both are available at the three Talents boutiques in Paris. Breed won SEMA’s Contemporary Creation Prize in 2007.

Talents 1 bis rue Scribe, 9th. 01.40.17.98.38; 22 and 26 ave Niel, 17th, 01.48.88.06.58.

Vincent Breed’s website

Originally published in the December 2009 issue of France Today.