No Drama
2026
No Drama is a series of meticulously handblown glass vases. Defined by their unusually wide bases, they convey a sense of calm and stability while remaining functional. No tipping over. No drama.
Each vase is made from a small piece of transparent or coloured glass, which is heated, shaped on the blowpipe and repeatedly dipped into clear molten glass. This process creates a transparent outer layer. Rather than forming a hard line between object and space, this layer becomes a permeable boundary through which object and surroundings remain visually connected. Light, colour and reflections from the surrounding world enter the object’s surface and become part of its appearance.
The wide bases express the same idea in a different way. Spreading across the surface on which they stand, they seem to extend beyond the body of the vase and into their surroundings.
The series shown at Lake Como Design Festival explores this relationship through varying degrees of transparency, colour and density. From clear glass to translucent yellow, pearlescent white, yellow filled with air bubbles, and rich dark yellow, the pieces gradually move towards a greater concentration of colour, weight and scale.
In No Drama, the border is not a line of separation, but a reflective membrane where object and space seem to merge.
Carolien Janssens is a Swiss designer whose work creates connections between function and meaning, craft and industry, responsibility and aesthetic expression. With a background in mathematics, she often develops product families based on formulas and underlying patterns. She creates these systems in order to break away from them, making room for moments of unexpected amazement.
When she doesn’t think in systems, she thinks with her hands. She loves surprises and believes in the value of objects that have been carefully made.