Annieglass Opens New Store on Santana Row
During my college years in Santa Cruz, one of my favorite pastimes was window-shopping at the Annieglass store downtown, where I admired the exquisitely crafted and artistic glass tableware. Luckily for us in Silicon Valley, this retail space has now moved to a storefront on Santana Row.
Annie Morhauser learned her signature glassmaking process studying under famed glass artist Marvin Lipofsky at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Relying on her own experiments, her teacher’s advice and the support of a local community of artists, she pushed the limits of her medium to create the sculptural pieces she is known for today.
Since founding Annieglass in 1983, Annie has become a world-famous artist, while keeping her business personal and local, never outsourcing the production of her glassware. Two pieces from her Shell series are featured in a display at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and celebrities from Oprah to Christina Aguilera have her pieces in their personal collections. You can also find them on tables at various Bay Area restaurants, including Manresa in Los Gatos, the St. Regis, the Four Seasons and Sons & Daughters in San Francisco.
Open since mid-April, Annieglass Santana Row occupies a jewel box of a location right on the main, tree-lined street of boutiques and restaurants. Managed by Annie’s daughter Ava, it’s a small but breezy space, the perfect spot to showcase the line of nature-inspired platters, dinnerware and serving bowls.
Durability isn’t a word you’d regularly associate with such artful tableware, but that is truly the case with Annieglass. Made from panes of construction-grade window glass, all of the pieces are dishwasher safe, even the plates and platters rimmed with hand-painted trim of gold and platinum. The paint is fused right into the glass during the firing process, and ground-down rounded edges make the pieces durable and resistant to chipping.
Every six months, Annieglass unveils a brand new collection of pieces. Recent collections include the Edgy series, inspired by the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. These plates and platters have irregular, hammered edges that show off Annie’s signature gold- and platinum-painted trim to glamorous effect, glittering from every angle. She has also recently started producing pieces in a dark blue shade—the Indigo line of dinnerware, including larger serving bowls and platters with a rippled, undulating texture, resembling the waves of the ocean.
The Santana Row store also showcases the work of other artists: jewelry, drinkware and serving utensils that complement the Annieglass tableware. Whether you’re looking for a wedding gift or shopping for yourself (or planning your own registry, perhaps), you’ll find the perfect pieces for a summer table.
