How beautiful are these vases?
And they have been made in Canberra thanks to a lovely collaboration between a famed pub and some skilled local artists.
And fashioned from something that may have just ended up in landfill or, at best, the local recycling centre.
Peter Barclay, owner of King O'Malley's pub in Civic, was tidying up one day and thinking what a waste it was to put the pub's beautiful blue Bombay Sapphire gin bottles into the recycling bins as waste.
He wondered if they could, instead, be upcycled in some way.
Enter Elizabeth Rogers, CEO of the Canberra Glassworks.
Both she and Peter are members of the tourist organisation Skal International Canberra and got to talking one day about what to do with these beautiful blue bottles.
Peter had been "hoarding" the bottles since the pandemic and had about 50 stored in milk crates.
"I just said, 'The blue is so beautiful, can we do something with them?'," he said.
Elizabeth introduced Peter to artist Jacqueline Knight and her team at the Glassworks and, after much trial and error, a unique steel mould was fabricated, which allows the glass to be softened and transformed into an octagon.
The resulting Sapphire Vase is a one-of-a-kind result, with each one coming out of the hotsho, a slightly different shape and size, showing off the original gin embossing
The vases are now on sale at the Canberra Glassworks for $220.
A sapphire chandelier was also commissioned by King O'Malley's and is now proudly on display in the main entry of the City Walk institution.
Now, Peter delivers a box of the bottles at a time to the glassworks to make the vases. All proceeds go to the Glassworks and the artists.
Some bottles don't survive the creative process, cracking or breaking under the heat.
Peter has a very easy solution to keep up with the already high demand for the vases.
"We're trying to sell more gin to keep up," he said.
Bottoms up.
