Open Doors at Openstudio, Designblok Prague

The Diploma Selection was a showcase of the best graduates from fashion and product design courses across Europe’s universities and art academies. German designer Laura Jungmann collaborated with glassmaker Cornelius Réer, to reform existing mass-produced glass products using traditional glassblowing techniques.

Being in The Czech Republic, it was inevitable I’d see a lot of glassware, and I really liked the refined lines of this collection by Kristyna Petrova.

This vase, available in a range of colours, by Romana Vyhnankova of Studio Muck caught my eye – I liked the pairing of bold colours with natural wood.

Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (AAAD) student Barbara Pribylova won the Designblok Talent Card for her Lollykov floor lamp, as part of a long-term project supporting students from Czech Universities.

New designer Petr Hak perfectly balanced natural wood with luxe copper shades to create these simple yet striking pendants.

One of my top finds from the whole of Designblok was Michael Tomalik’s duvet-filled, metal-framed chair complete with storage for anything you might want to hand on a lazy Sunday morning. I love its playful ‘form-follows-function’ design.

Drzmiskova Ceramics were showing some gorgeous products and filled their space with a cloud of dispersed scent, making for a completely immersive, and very pleasant, experience.

Another top find was Dechem Studio, aka Michaela Tomišková and Jakub Janďourek. With the slogan, ‘We tell stories in Bohemian glass,’ their combinations of materials and forms were absolutely stunning.

Jan Plechac and Henry Wieglus seemed to pop up all over the festival – these are their handblown glass pendants.

And to finish on, two chandeliers. Above is the Super Light Freestyle by Fehling & Peiz and below, the Maria SC chandelier made from laboratory test tubes.

Check out our feature on this test tube lamp here.