Pròsper Riba, the young glass artisan who once dreamt of the magnificent forests of Bohemia

The young glass artisan and designer Pròsper Riba Vilardell—who once dreamt of the magnificent forests of Bohemia while immersed in a rigorous process of learning—now develops his project The Glass Apprentice in Barcelona.

Under this label, Pròsper creates, produces and markets his works, collaborates with various design firms and professionals, and shares his knowledge with students. The team of The Glass Apprentice is composed of Pròsper Riba Vilardell and Portuguese artisan Telma Araújo, his assistant and a goldsmith.

On his father’s side, Pròsper descends from a family of Catalan artists who, for generations, have worked in sculpture, literature, music, and metalwork—some of them leaving their mark on their era. His mother, a stage director, named him after the protagonist of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

He studied at the German School of Barcelona and later at Escola Massana, where he discovered blown glass. This marked the beginning of a journey through various schools and studios: Penland School of Craft (USA), Provincial Archaeological Museum (Belgium), Glassworks Matteo Gonet (Switzerland), Glashütte Comploj (Austria), JMW_Studio and Fluïd (France), and—most notably—Glasfachschule Zwiesel and Bild-Werk in Germany, the birthplace of the Studio Glass Movement.

Alongside this training, his own research has focused on mastering and transforming the spherical nature of blown glass, its sculptural expressiveness, the visual qualities of glass as a material, geometry, and the interplay of light, form and color. He has exhibited these explorations in collective exhibitions in Spain and internationally.

The name The Glass Apprentice reflects the idea that glassmaking, an ancient technique, has traditionally been considered a form of initiatory knowledge. For Pròsper, it expresses that experimentation and learning are central to his creative process—where northern European craftsmanship meets the Mediterranean’s playful and curious spirit.

The pandemic brought him back to Barcelona, where he forged professional relationships with the workshop of the Glass Museum of Vimbodí i Poblet (Tarragona) and the Royal Glass Factory of La Granja (Segovia) to help bring his project to life. He currently works from his studio in Barcelona’s Sant Martí district.

Pròsper Riba Vilardell was recently awarded the Premio Nacional de Artesanía Emprende by the Catalan government. He was also named one of AD Spain’s Best of España 2023, alongside 23 other emerging talents.

Pròsper shared with us this beautiful text:

“When I was a child, I loved to take things apart and rebuild them in new forms. Now, when I gather glass from the furnace, it is a formless mass—until I shape it.
When I was a child, I was diagnosed with diplopia—double vision. Sometimes I wonder if the focus and concentration required when blowing glass has something to do with those long hours of visual training to make my eyes converge.
I was also diagnosed with superior visual acuity, meaning I have a heightened ability to recognize analogies between forms. Now I create analogies between my emotions and the shapes I make.
Where others saw red, green or blue, I saw endless shades of each. Today, color is often the starting point for my work—sometimes even more than form.
In my youth I studied Industrial Modelling. 3D design was a fundamental tool. Now I use digital tools to design my pieces.
I’m drawn to the untamed personality of glass and the care and tenderness it demands. I’m glad to have received a demanding and disciplined training from my German mentors, which I’ve infused with my Mediterranean playfulness.
I consider myself an apprentice because I see my path as an artist as an endless journey. There is always something beautiful or surprising ahead.”

A continuación, nos explica una selección de su obra con todo detalle:

Don Quijote

Hyacinth bulbs for autumn-winter and vases for flowers during the rest of the year. This collection is inspired by the slender, elongated and free figure of Don Quixote, evoking the image of a hyacinth blooming in very cold water during the winter solstice.

The colors are applied during the production process. Each piece is made from original designs, mouth-blown in beechwood molds and finished with traditional techniques used by Bohemian glass artisans.

The hyacinth bulb, with its white roots growing in water and its fragrant flower rising into the air, creates a beautiful and harmonious link between design and nature. Witnessing this transformation is a delight for lovers of both the natural world and interior design.

Big Dancers

Despite their majesty and scale, the Big Dancers collection shares the same philosophy and intent as the Little Dancers, but adds a new layer: their presence as totemic figures that summon life—the physical, the tactile, the sensory—the kind that gives rise to emotion.

With their sculptural forms and ethereal dance in the wind, full of color and movement, the Big Dancers remind us that beauty can transcend the limits of visibility. Like Sky Dancers, these glass giants sway with the breeze, defying gravity and captivating our imagination with elegance. They invite us to flow with life, to engage and interact.

Each Big Dancer stands as an individual, a shape-color with its own personality and mood. They embody emotional nature shaped by social interaction and cultural frameworks.

Measuring 30 cm or more, each Big Dancer is a unique piece composed of several assembled blown-glass elements. They are made from clear glass with a significant proportion of cullet that gives them their signature dense and vibrant color.

Little Dancer

This collectible series is crafted exclusively with vintage glass cullet in various colors, often from discontinued batches. The Little universe began at Bild-Werk, Germany, when master glassmaker Heinz Fischer gifted Pròsper a collection of cullet dating back to the 1940s.

The goal of experimenting with this viscous, dense and mineral-rich material was to transform the classic glass bubble into geometric shapes: cone, cylinder, sphere… But as he immersed himself in the playful behavior of molten glass—its dance and emotional fluidity—visual analogies emerged that whimsically evoked the human condition.

Each Little Dancer, unique in shape and color, becomes part of a visual dialogue when grouped with others—adding ironic, melancholic or joyful nuances to the individual piece. 

Touchstone

Touchstone was born from a collaboration with Mobles 114. The brief was to design and create pieces that would form a connection between traditional blown glass and their Elige display cabinet.

Each piece is blown and shaped entirely by hand. During the process, the bi-colored bubble is stretched to the limits of elasticity until gravity causes it to collapse. Chance plays a key role, making every object different and unique.

Touchstone was exhibited at the Mobles 114 stand at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, and later presented in their showroom during BDW2022.

Eclipsis

The Eclipsis lamps explore light and shadow—what is visible and what remains hidden—using various techniques such as roll-up, incalmo and custom methods. Their aesthetic is inspired by the phenomenon of eclipses.

Just as the moon passes between the sun and earth during a solar eclipse, these lamps create a kind of meta-eclipse: the object itself occludes part of its own form as it rotates in relation to the viewer, heightening mystery and curiosity. One side of the lamp can hide the other.

With their bold visual presence, Eclipsis lamps are capable of defining the entire atmosphere of a room.

Matriu

In Catalan, matriu means womb—the organ where life begins. The Matriu lamp, with its delicate, fragile joints and connections, evokes the act of artistic creation.

Formed by three identical glass pieces that embrace a brass element, it symbolizes the three stages of inspiration: the idea, the fluctuating idea, and the realized idea. Once this creation takes shape, the artist delicately picks it up—using thumb and forefinger—as if it were something fragile. The brass piece crowning the lamp takes the form of this gesture: a pinch.

Matriu brings together the ethereal sheet-like quality of glass, the playful character of the brass shapes, the vibrant presence of its cable, and a touch of innocent craftsmanship. The result is a lighting piece that becomes a catalyst for style and ambiance—versatile enough to work in both functional and playful spaces.

Escates

Escates—opaque, translucent or transparent—are the result of the project Contemporary Colored Glass. Research and Investigation, supported by the Catalan Ministry of Culture and developed during a residency at the Glass Workshop of the Vimbodí i Poblet Museum (Tarragona).

Blown glass is traditionally worked from the center outward. Here, the intention was to reverse that, working inward—toward a hidden, mysterious space, perhaps even a space of protection or refuge. The goal was to emphasize verticality and suggest fluidity through convex forms.

These pieces speak in poetic, contemporary terms about social combinations: power, lack of it, unity, connection, dispersion, light and darkness.

Thinking about the molecular structure of opaque glass—countless micro-crystals formed by metal oxides that disrupt vision through the material—Pròsper imagines a swarm of tiny beings trapped inside. Their union would block transparency entirely. A color gradient, on the other hand, might suggest conquest, defeat or extinction. A spot of color could symbolize a gathering of unique individuals. Two colors, a shared society or even the birth of a friendship.

These imagined societies need a world to inhabit—and this is where form comes into play: the scale (in his native tongue, escata). Through color, each piece tells a story—whether neutral, pure, bold or sinister. This collection was created in collaboration with sculptor David Roa.

Phoenix

Behind the robust and hermetic appearance of these pieces lies a concept that weaves together three emotional states: stress, relaxation, and euphoria. The collection is the result of an exploration of various traditional techniques—incalmo, Swedish overlay, gradient, pop of punty—and a personal investigation into color degradation in blown glass.

The first violet gradient represents a tension zone. The color is intense, marking the point of origin. This tension gradually fades to transparency, then folds inward as energy begins to rebuild. From within, it slowly rises again—like a phoenix.

The contact point between these two emotional states—achieved through the incalmo technique, in which the cylinder continues to grow—signifies a new beginning. A new phase in which tension has passed and a gentle color gradient gives way to triumphant euphoria.

Phoenix is a visual narrative of emotional evolution.

Este el proceso de creación de Phoenix:

Source: The Glass Apprentice.

Project by Pròsper Riba Vilardell