"Bonsai Side Plate" Hand Blown Glass Side Plate by Simone Crestani

Artist, designer and glass virtuoso Simone Crestani is a luminary in the world of glass art, combining time-honored tradition with innovative glassblowing techniques to create exquisite sculptures, vessels and modern objets d’art.

Born in 1984 in Marostica, near Venice, Crestani began working with glass at age 15 as an apprentice at the Massimo Lunardon glass factory. Following a 10-year apprenticeship, Crestani opened his atelier and studio in Camisano Vicentino in northern Italy in 2010.

Dedicated to research and exploring new glassblowing methods, Crestani has moved away from working with traditional Murano glass to borosilicate glass, using a specialized flameworking technique he calls “hollow sculpture.”

By using borosilicate glass, which is nearly unbreakable, Crestani can shape and mold his pieces with extraordinary detail. Nature inspires many of his works, such as his Serpentine barware, bird decanters, octopus-inspired Polpo pitchers, antler-topped Africa Trophy bottles, molecular Alchemica glassware line and beautiful candelabras adorned with roses. Other notable Crestani creations include his luminous E-Sumi wall sconces and table lamps, influenced by traditional Japanese sumi-e paintings.

Crestani has collaborated with leading designers such as Giordano Viganò, with whom he made several sculptural wood and glass tables, and Italian glass expert Roberto Giulio Rida for Bernd Goeckler Antiques’ Duetto collection. Among its pieces are the bonsai-like Avatar chandelier and the Scarabei mirror, with glass scarabs embedded in its circular frame.

Since 2006, Crestani’s works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions around the world, including PAD Paris, the Venice Biennale and Salon Art + Design in New York.

On 1stDibs, find a range of Simone Crestani serveware, decorative objects, lighting and more.

Atelier Crestani was born thank to the creative and skillful Simone Crestani’s activity, who started working glass on 2001, first as a student at the Massimo's Lunardon glass factory and then, after ten years of apprenticeship, opening his own studio, where he continues to work, dedicated to research and innovation. An introspective and self-taught artist, over the years he put together all the lessons learned and the experience gained, and finally broke away from the traditional glass of Murano, finding his own language and expressive code, provided by its specific brand awareness. Inspired by the never-ending variety of the natural world, the shapes of animals and plants magically come to life, even in their tiniest details, in a celebration of lightness and transparency. The Atelier Crestani includes the two main spirits of the rich Simone’s production: on one hand, the world of the design, Studio Crestani, characterized by a variety of high quality and esthetic objects of everyday usage, on the other hand, the plastic and artistic production, made by exclusive unique and signed pieces. Simone Crestani’s technique, together with his personal style and sophisticated poetics, allow him to create an interaction, where glass overcomes its purely material dimension and becomes a fine and studied artistic language, a pure, silent and crystalline conceptual element.