Does anybody out there remember those draping, beaded room dividers that often carved up interior space for hippie types circa 1975? I barely caught the tail end of this habitual feature, but I remember visiting a friend of my mother’s whose home was so appointed, and I rather enjoyed the sensation of gently passing through the suspended wall of tinkling beads. Rhode Island artist Tracy Glover has taken the notion and improved it several fold. Her Jewel Box System (debuting this year at ICFF) is a modular compendium of handblown glass bulbs, “components that can function as pendant lighting, wall decoration, space divider, window treatment or semi-privacy device.”

Jewel Box. Designed by Tracy Glover.

A Wondrous Array of Aesthetic Options with Jewel Box

Jewel Box is comprised of Glover’s extended range of exquisite glass elements. These individual “jewels” include a choice of six shapes (Lozenge, Onion, Marquise, Oval, Globe, and Tear Drop); five patterns (Ribbed, Stripe, Ostrich, Lace, and Primavera); and more color combinations than a tie-dyed t-shirt. Glover’s resplendent samples gleam with golden hues, shine with subtle suffusions of silver, inspire with an aqueous assortment of ocean blues and deep sea greens. The lovely thread running through it all (Jewel Box’s connective tissue) is actually a stainless steel cable finished in brushed nickel or brushed brass. The Jewel Box concept promotes experimentation and innovation, and I’d love to see a door or wall high installation of these beautiful blown glass curtains, but the individual pieces are worthy of recognition in their own right. This synthesis of beauty and high functionality makes Jewel Box quite a treasure trove indeed.

About the Designer: Don’t discount those reams of supposed junk mail that arrive in your box daily, for one of them just might change your life as it absolutely changed the life of artist/designer Tracy Glover. As an architecture student at Virginia Tech, she happened upon a glassblower’s photo in an RISD catalog. Thoroughly smitten, she promptly transferred to Providence, R.I. to earn a BFA in glass. During her apprenticeship, she worked at such luminous locales as a 13th. century Belgian convent’s crystal factory and Dale Chihuly’s Pilchuk glass school. She opened her own studio in 1994, where she continues to create bespoke pieces for a diverse clientele. Though she works with a team of assistants, Tracy is the sole designer.