If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): plates

Yesterday on this blog, I shared with you many unusual items that incorporate Swarovski Austrian Crystals into their designs.

One of the companies I mentioned in that post was a luxury tableware company named Prouna. Today, I wanted to give you a better look at their luxury bone china dinnerware and tableware that incorporate the fast-becoming ubiquitous Swarovski Crystals.

above: the Diana place setting is adorned with baguette, round and cabochon amber and clear Swarovski crystals

Prouna is the luxury brand of Hankook Chinaware, a 60-year-old Seoul-based family business that has manufactured bone china for the likes of Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Royal Doulton for decades.

above: the Chain mugs withcolored or clear crystals and platinum or gold edging.

In 2005, they discovered a way to bond Swarovski crystals to china that are... hard to believe, but dishwasher safe. The Bahadorzadehs, a family of Iranian commodities traders specializing in steel, came across the company’s wares in 2008 and last year began exclusively distributing them in the United States through their showroom in New York.

The Prouna Jewel collection, as the crystal clad china is called, presently features multiple lines of dinnerware, espresso and tea service, most of which can be mixed and matched.

Jupiter:
Platinum squiggles line the edges of the plates that are accented with clear Swarovski crystals

Best Wishes:
Best Wishes combines gold silhouettes of charms like cupid, horseshoe, italian horn and a heart with clear Swarovski Crystals and platinum details.

Princess:
The most expensive ($995), Princess displays a platinum web pattern studded with clear round crystals.

Diana:
The Diana place setting ($885) has amber and clear baguettes, round and cabochon crystals arranged in geometric, modern patterns on 24-karat-gold rims.

Adonis:
The Adonis place setting ($885) has amber and clear baguettes, round and cabochon crystals arranged in geometric, Art Deco-like patterns on 24-karat-gold rims.

Persia:
Persia ($517) is a paisley pattern that has amber and clear baguette, round and cabochon crystals with gold and platinum accents.

Peridot:
A paisley pattern similar to Persia, only with platinum, blue and bronze accents and pale green, amber and clear crystals.

Regency Platinum:
a formal and more conservative pattern that has fine lines and small Swarovski crystals set linearally at the four points of the plates.

Two examples of their Tea Sets (teapot, creamer, sugar, mugs and saucers).
Jupiter:

Tiffany:

Some of their mugs and espresso cups, which are available in various colors:

above: gift items like the Princess vase and the Lucia vase, 14" tall bone china vases set with Swarovski Crystals for $8,150.00 and $11,680.00 respectively, are also part of the Prouna Jewel Collection

Prouna’s entire Jewel Collection comes with a lifetime guarantee to replace any errant crystals. See more of their collections and shop online here.

above: The No Limits Bowl, glass and porcelain.

Amongst her large repertoire of work, French artist Vanessa Mitrani creates beautiful and functional hand-blown glass decorative vessels that can also function as fish tanks or fishbowls.

The latest of these objets d'art/aquariums is her No Limits Collection which features porcelain or aluminum cast fish half in and half out of their glass surroundings. As if escaping from their habitats, the fish create a sort of optical illusion, floating between their world of captivity and ours.

Dish (glass and porcelain):

Round bowl and Giant Cylinder (glass and porcelain):

In addition to the larger pieces (shown above) that can actually be used as aquariums, the collection includes a vase, water glasses, mugs and cups:

Her Aquarius Collection has been featured in various magazines and on design blogs touting their modern shape and convergence of nature and design.

Simple and Double:

Panoramic and Bottles:

Building and a recent piece from Salone del Mobil (name unknown):

And finally, her Oxygen Collection consists of two pieces; a large and small version of fused round bowls that appear as connected bubbles, weightless and suspended in air.

Glasssware is only a small part of Vanessa Mitrani's work. She also designs textiles, display products for merchandisers and works in porcelain. She has an impressive client list, having created pieces for Salviati, Ligne Roset and Roche Bobois, to name a few. Many of her pieces are carried by exclusive galleries or high end boutiques.

About the artist:

Vanessa Mitrani trained in furniture design at ENSAD, under the tutelage of Jean Claude Maugirard, spent a year at ADAC studios and worked with with the glass artist Pedro Veloso.

After graduating from ENSAD in 1999 she embarked on a professional career, the following year obtaining the VIA Label and created her first edition of vases for Ligne Roset.

In 2002, she started Vanessa Mitrani Creations which developed original objects, products, furniture design, and produced pieces for Roche Bobois, Salviati, Neiman Marcus, l’Occitane en Provence and the Conran shop. Mitrani also collaborates directly with factories in France, Portugal and India several times a year.