R
aquel Pou is a Mallorca born, award-winning artisan specialised in glass blowing. After learning about the material and its manufacturing techniques in locally established companies such as Gordiola and Menestralia, in 2006 she set up her own workshop in Campos, melting and reshaping glass into contemporary objects. She has participated in a number of local exhibitions and events held by private and public institutions, such as Art Nit Campos, Galeria Santany and Galeria Miquela Nicolau; She has exhibited with local artists including Pere Ignasi, who she considers a valuable mentor. She made site-specific installations for the “International Day of Glass 2023” and later in 2024 for “Las infinitas vidas del vidrio”, where she celebrates the relationship between the material and the context where it lives in her work.
Raquel’s artistic practice took a leap forward in 2015 by founding “Hot Glass Studio”, an exhibition space in Campos set to showcase collaborations with other artists and her own work. The space served as a selling platform until 2020, and closed down during the pandemic; she recently relocated to a new studio and showroom nearby where she currently works and welcomes visitors.
Her work blurs the line between art and design by creating unique, sophisticated pieces as a result of extensive experience with the material; while some of her objects are responding to a function, such as oil dispensers, bowls or jars, her interpretation of form, scale and colour always reflects her strong artistic DNA in celebrating the nature of glass. Forms reveal her process by being organic and asymmetrical; scale varies from individual objects to installations, clustered objects that can take up a room; colours come from the source material - she primarily uses recycled glass, but even here she adds her own mark by combining different shades, creating extraordinary variations.
From her process, to the message delivered by her artworks, there is an ongoing relationship between the material, glass, and the sea as an analogy for the material’s infinity of life, but also as a production resource: she locally collects and dries poseidonia, also called the “glass-maker algae” typical of the Mediterranean, an active component for melting glass that she also utilises as a packaging material. From manufacturing to delivery, the process speaks for itself in terms of circular economy and sustainability, respecting and maximising local natural resources.
