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Every year Artecnica pairs a well known designer with an artisan working in a small community to collaborate on a product for their Design With Conscience project. Though each product is typically greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm, the TranSglass collection designed by Studio Tord Boontje and Emma Woffenden has become one of Artecnica’s best-selling items. Aid to Artisans, a non-profit organization providing assistance to artisans worldwide, worked to bring Guatemalan craftsmen together with Woffenden and Boontje and ultimately, to bring their design to market, where MoMA saw it and acquired TranSglass for their permanent collection. The recycled wine bottle vases have been much copied, but Artecnica is the only place to get the original designs. The collection also cleverly repurposes wine bottles into carafes, candleholders and dishes.
