Pia Wustenberg graduated from the Royal College of Arts in 2010 with an outstanding collection of glass Stacking Vessels. Her reputation is growing fast and her name is now synonymous with contemporary glass production.
Wustenberg runs her design and manufacturing company, Utopia & Utility, in partnership with her brother Moritz. Their philosophy is that "everything that deserves to be made, deserves to be made well". Pia Wustenberg contrasts glass with wood, brass, copper, paper or ceramics, reinterpreting these traditional materials in a contemporary way. Indeed, Wustenberg sees her work as a series of contrasts : contrast of materials, of function and art, contemporary and traditional.
Craft is at the heart of everything. Half-German, half-Finnish, Wustenberg spent her childhood between the two countries, learning craft skills from her Finnish mother and grandmother. Today, Pia Wustenberg is based in London, but travels frequently across Europe, working with the best artisans : wood turners in Germany, glass-blowers in the Czech Republic.
Many of her best ideas come to her during her time in Finland, spent in a small hut on a deserted island, with no running water and no electricity.
