Since 2014, Lucile Viaud has pursued a body of work focused on water, coastlines, and marine resources. She invented Glaz marine glass—from the Old Breton glas, a hue between green and blue used to describe the ever-changing colors of the sea in Brittany—using microalgae and shell by-products, notably oyster shells and abalone shells.
Naturally colored, micro-bubbled, and malleable, Glaz marine glass is the first glass developed by Atelier Lucile Viaud that can be worked using all traditional glassmaking techniques. Eighteen months of research were required to refine a high-quality formulation, giving rise to a living material marked by striations, cords, and microbubbles, whose reflections shift from green to blue depending on the seasons and the light.
In 2016, Lucile Viaud turned her attention to the ancestral know-how of seaweed harvesters and developed Verre des Abers in Finistère, in collaboration with the Plouguerneau ecomuseum. This was followed by Opal Glass, Glass of the Ponant Islands, and other experiments, each rooted in a specific territory. The artist then coined the term “geoglassmaking” to describe this approach, which explores the intimate link between landscape, material, and local resources, transforming neglected by-products into natural glass.
Alongside her fundamental research, Lucile Viaud develops edition-based and bespoke projects. Since 2016, Atelier Lucile Viaud has created Ostraco, a homeware brand produced in micro-series. The Ostraco Pots, stackable and combinable, were awarded the Observeur du design label (2018) and the Sustainable Development Star (APCI & ADEME). Designed to interact with light, their volumes reveal the thicknesses and reflections of the glass material.
Her work also includes numerous collaborations with chefs and renowned maisons. From the Rœllinger project in Saint-Méloir-des-Ondes to pieces designed for the restaurants Racines and Gabriel, as well as the Beauty of the World window displays created for Cartier, Lucile Viaud conceives works in which glass tells the story of a territory, a culinary narrative, or a sensitive relationship with the living world.
Since 2019, she has also been developing the sculptural series Diatomées, in collaboration with biologist Stéphane Rivoal. These sculptures in Glaz marine glass, inspired by microalgae invisible to the naked eye, offer a poetic mediation between art and science, revealing the beauty of a microscopic world essential to ocean life.
Through a body of work deeply rooted in maritime landscapes and scientific knowledge, Lucile Viaud transforms glass into a medium of memory, territory, and transformation—where the ocean becomes both source, material, and horizon.
Learn more about her art (external link)