Glass Artist Juli Bolaños-Durman Transforms Waste into Whimsical Art

Like many artists, Juli Bolaños-Durman always knew she had a creative calling. But her upbringing in Costa Rica has shaped it in unexpected ways. Now based in Edinburgh, the glass-maker explains that back then, essentials were expensive and had to be looked after; if something got broken, it was mended, not thrown away.

Resourcefulness at the Core

That habit of resourcefulness is fundamental to her ‘assemblages’: decorative objects made using found pieces of glass and interesting fragments. They may look whimsical, but they are sustained by her determination to reject waste wherever she comes across it.

‘Glass is wonderful because when it breaks or scratches, it can be mended,’ says Juli, alluding to her process of rescuing discarded materials. These can come from anywhere. Flea markets and charity shops are rich hunting grounds, but there are also more unlikely places – for instance a recycling bank, or even the rubbish bins of a Czech glass-blowing factory, with which she has struck up a collaboration to repurpose rejected items from its production line. In Juli’s hands, even a tossed wine bottle has a new life.

Inspired by Nature and Imperfection

Juli likens her craft to stacking Lego bricks, and her magpie-like collecting habits to ‘a child collecting stones on the beach’. When she arrived in Scotland 15 years ago to embark on her MFA in glass at Edinburgh College of Art, it was the mistakes in the glass-making process that interested her; the designs that ended up wonky, picked up dust from the floor, or were left with bits of raw rock clinging to them.

Her assemblages have the same ‘perfectly imperfect’ beauty, with the designer’s identity stamped on each element with hand-cut marks inspired by the patterns on traditional whisky tumblers. Nature is another constant source of inspiration. Juli grew up on a mango farm, playing outside and surrounded by animals. The lush landscape and its colours are reflected in many of her designs, including the Wee Birds – Pajaritos series she exhibited at Sotheby’s for this year’s inaugural House & Garden Craft Prize. The sculptures were made using remnants from the Czech factory. ‘I was so proud to be in this beautiful showcase, sharing a little bit of the tropics and showing that waste from the bin could end up in a gallery.’