Plissé Plisování. Where tradition meets the future.
The installation Plissé Plisování, created for Crystal Valley Week, represents a convergence where the centuries-old tradition of Czech glassmaking meets a refined French sensibility for geometry, ornamentation, and visual rhythm. The project, created in collaboration between glass artist Eva Nováková (Studio Umyo) and Parisian designer Baptiste Vandaele with the generous support of Preciosa Ornela, transforms tradition into a fresh, contemporary experience.
The installation will be on display in the Crystal Box from August 5 to 29 at Šaldovo Square.
The title pays tribute to the Liberec region, historically one of Central Europe’s important centres of both glass production and textile manufacturing. Once, the glow of furnaces and the movement of looms shaped the identity of the city. Today, this dual heritage is reinterpreted through glass, as the soft folds of pleated fabric — plissé — are translated into sculptural glass surfaces of light and form.
At the centre of the installation stand a sculptural folding screen and a pair of coffee tables — collectible objects suspended between furniture, artwork, and architecture. Produced using kiln-cast glass techniques, rods of raw glass are melted over custom plaster moulds, creating tactile pleated reliefs rich in depth, reflection, and shadow. Matte edges meet polished transparency, giving each piece a shifting visual presence.
The installation is made from Liba 96, a new glass line developed by Preciosa Ornela. Thanks to its COE96 compatibility, multiple colours can be fused seamlessly, opening new possibilities for contemporary glass design. Layers of violet, topaz, and UV-reactive glass give the objects a changing identity. By day, they appear as elegant interior objects; by night, under ultraviolet light, they transform into luminous sculptural forms.
The collaboration unites two distinct creative perspectives. Baptiste Vandaele approaches motif and ornament as a living visual language, using repetition, symmetry, and modular systems to create expressive compositions full of movement and rhythm. Eva Nováková contributes her material expertise and sculptural vision, exploring glass beyond decoration into the realm of spatial experience, emotion, and architecture.
Plissé Plisování celebrates glass not only as a material of heritage, but as a medium of new possibilities. It shows how traditional craft can evolve, how ornament can regain relevance, and how contemporary design can connect the past with the future through colour, light, and form.
