When I started this blog, I set myself a goal of introducing my audiences to designers, artists and other inspiring people. Today, I am making good on that promise by chatting with Petra Švejdarová and Klára Vaculíková, the female team behind “Prasklo”, a brand that has been creating the beautiful vases that I have been seeing in design stores throughout the Czech Republic.

How did you come up with the name Prasklo? How did you create it?

Well, our first attempts to cut glass led to the glass cracking everywhere except where we wanted it to crack :) And that’s where the name idea came from. People also often ask us if the glass is cracked or ancient. Actually, both are often true :) (Author’s note: “prasklo” means “it cracked” but the “pra-” prefix also indicates something old, or ancient).

By now, we have mastered the glass-cutting technique, but we still like to leave the glass unfinished so it’s obvious that it’s been recycled.

One of the interesting aspects of your business is the focus on product upcycling. You give old products a new and beautiful life. Has this always been your goal?

Yes, it’s exactly as you say. Giving new life to glass that someone wanted to throw away. I like to collect old glass, go antiquing, visit old markets… but you can also find interesting pieces in the trash bins. Our friends also supply us with a lot of material.

I always have such an urge, such a desire to take an old piece of glass, combine it with concrete, and turn them into a new, unique piece of art.

What inspired you to start the business?

Prasklo is not a business, it is a creative brand that Klára and I established. It is our “baby”, one that helped us find our meaning, and that gives us room to express ourselves and show our enthusiasm. One thing that Klára and I have in common is the fact that each of us previously had a successful and stable career in a different field. Yet, somehow we both got lost in what we were doing. At some point, we both realised that we were just following the well-trodden path, being good children who find a stable job, take good care of themselves, and when they eventually successfully retire, develop a hobby if their health still allows. It was around that same time that we actually met and joined forces. For both of us, building a brand is a new, truer expression of ourselves—even at the cost of financial instability.

I noticed you recently mentioned The Continental Wasting Project in your communications. Can you tell me something about the project? How is Prasklo involved in it?

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Continental Wasting is a unique project of ours. We’re quite proud of it and continue developing it. The idea was born sometime last year and we started implementation this spring. Essentially, we drive along the plastic-polluted coast of Europe where we visit well-known as well as lesser-known beaches. There, we collect a sample of plastic waste—small colorful pieces that aesthetically change the quality of the sand. Sand is the raw materials in concrete, so figuratively we allow for these small plastics to aesthetically change the quality of our concrete. Our concrete objects and vases from this project thus serve, by themselves, as a testimony of this crazy plastic era, though they do so by infusing the objects with the cheerful (plastic) colors. A little bit of a paradox, if you ask us. We would like to believe that humanity will soon find a way to rid the oceans of plastic waste, and that perhaps the next generation will have a hard time believing that beaches, even the most beautiful ones, once used to be covered in plastic and microplastics, as if it were a natural part of the ecosystem. And they'll see Prasklo’s work and realise how bad it was. That's our optimistic vision :)

Looking at your Instagram, many of your posts have interesting, almost philosophical captions. What led you to this and what does Prasklo want to say to everyone?

As I mentioned above, Prasklo is in our hearts. We don’t make run-of-the mill retail products. We create very personal pieces infused with our feelings and emotions. Our Instagram is just an extension of these feelings that inspire our work and our lives outside of work day-today.

What’s also interesting is that your brand is run by two women. Does that influence how you lead the company?

Yes. We could definitely benefit from a bit of male assertiveness :)

For the readers of this blog who do not know Prasklo yet, what would you like them to remember about your work and brand? What should everyone know?

Definitely the fact that we’re not a company, that we are not manufacturers. The vases are not run-of-the mill products. Each vase is unique, created in our studio and reflects a piece of our soul. Our souls are in no way superior or extraordinary compared to others, but they like to speak and push themselves to the surface in the form of Prasklo :)

Now, a few design-related questions

In your designs we see glass, crystal, cement... What is your favorite "raw material"?

I gravitate the most towards concrete. That crushed stone that, when combined with cement, turns into a different form of stone once again. That’s the raw material that fascinates me. I am drawn also to the juxtaposition—and the perceived lack of compatibility—of concrete and glass. They are seen as such polar opposites. But you know, glass is just molten sand… The two materials actually have a lot in common.

Right now though, we are getting ready to use concrete in conjunction with other materials, resin, metal…

The shapes of your vases and containers are always unique. What inspires you? How do you come up with a shape?

The shape of a vase is always based on where the given piece of glass takes me, how it inspires me. I always make a unique mold for the glass. We deliberately use rough, raw, ordinary concrete. We think that’s the right choice. We don't want our concrete filled with chemicals because we would then see it more as plastic, not as concrete.

The world of design is full of big names. Is there any design style or designer that inspires you? Who and why?

I am inspired by architecture, specifically brutalism and I also like minimalism. I am also inspired and enjoy the work of many artists. Currently, I am trying to learn more about the work of Magdalena Jetelová, Michal Škoda, Stanislav Kolíbal. Among architects, I am fascinated by Gottfried Böhm. His buildings are like giant sculptures.

By now, you have designed a large number of vases. Do you have a design that is close to your heart? A vase that you loved creating?

The ones that come to mind are the vases that we created in collaboration with the Preciosa glassworks. We have a great "upcycling" collaboration with them. We can take their hand blown crystal production rejects for our work. They have very strict quality control criteria. A beautiful object that has a single air bubble will not leave the factory... For that, we are grateful. We often receive interesting shapes of giant crystal from Preciosa, which inspires me to create vases that I would never have designed myself otherwise. We love these unexpected shapes…

What is your own design goal, an accomplishment that you have set out for yourselves?

We’d love to have solo exhibitions in beautiful galleries around the world :)

And finally, I always like to learn about the founders of the brand. Will you play this rapid-fire set of questions with me?

Morning coffee or tea? Both, first tea for breakfast and then coffee :)

Mountains or sea? Sea, mountains, sea

Dog or cat? Dog, Rottweiler Aja :)

Right now I love talking to inspiring people that I look up to

For inspiration…I go to galleries, to the cinema, to the library

A well spent weekend is… when we learn something new

My next trip will be... We usually find out about an upcoming trip only a few days ahead of departure and we just came back from one (Vejer de la Frontera, Gibraltar, Granada, Valencia, Barcelona, Lyon - that was our next trip to our Continental Wasting project).

Thank you for chatting with me and all the best for the future. I look forward to seeing more of your beautiful work in the coming months.

I hope you have enjoyed the concrete beauty of Prasklo and the creativity of its all-female team. You can find (and buy) their work on their website https://prasklo.com/ or follow their adventures, special projects and creations on Instagram @prasklo.

All images in this post are included with the kind permission of the Prasklo team (and a couple show the Prasklo vases in my own collection)