Eve George is our Artisan of the Month !

This episode of l’Artisan du Mois is dedicated to Eve George, glass-blower and 2020 Laureate of the Fondation Rémy Cointreau. Trained as a designer, her experience of molten materials, especially glass, helped Eve George to find her path. She opened Atelier George in 2017 with her partner Laurent Fichot.

The trade

Glass-blowing is an ancestral technique, dating from the 1st century BC. The glass-blower creates glass objects using a cane. By blowing into the cane and turning it, the craftsman creates shapes. This material never forgets the slightest shock, and as the saying goes, hot glass has a great shape memory.  “To be a glass-blower is to use your breath and, above all, your gestures to shape a material that is constantly in motion,” reveals Eve George.

The gesture

Master glass-makers perform a veritable ballet to give shape to the glass through specific gestures. For Eve George, an inheritor of this age-old know-how, it’s more generally about feeling her body in union and in movement with the material. It’s about learning a dance, movements and gestures that don’t exist until they become intuitive.

The transmission

In December 2023, UNESCO inscribed the gestures and know-how of the glass-maker masters as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This designation is essential to ensure the transmission of these traditional crafts. The idea of passing on is very important to the craftswoman. When she invites apprentices into her workshop, she establishes a relationship based on sharing and exchange. Each apprentice has her or his own cultural and technical background, creating a multi-generational dialogue.

Transmission, at the heart of the Fondation Rémy Cointreau‘s mission, led her to support Eve George in acquiring diamond tools for finishing (cutting, drilling, sanding, cold glass polishing), cutting wheels to equip a router and a saw blade.

Picture credits : Francois Golfier