Sweet Dreams are made of Glass

BEST OF | Issue 04 | AUTUMN/WINTER 2025/26

Established in the year 2017, the Helle Mardahl Studio unfolds its activities at the intersection of art and functionality in order to generate a sensuous dream-come-true universe consisting of brightly coloured, handblown glass designs with a playfully excentric touch.

Inspired by nostalgic remembrances of child-hood and iconically surreal movies such as Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, fancifully extravagant glass collections are produced which generate a conceptual universe of sweets. The repertoire encompasses chocolate boxes, drinking vessels, coffee and teacups, cocktail glasses, bowls/cups, water decanters and even lighting fixtures for tables, walls or swinging from the ceiling plus handles for cabinets and drawers.

Crafted through mouth-blowing techniques, the Pedestal is an artful creation featuring a sturdy stem and a glossy plateau expressly designed for display.

Helle Mardahl …

… is a graduate in fashion design from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. Today her oeuvre includes sculptures, installations, paintings, fashions, as well as interior designing. Her works distinguish themselves through their opulence and extravagance, coupled with a dash of histrionic theatre. As a designer, Helle Mardahl concentrates on the beauties inherent in contraries, polar opposites and takes precious little notice of current conventions and practices of the designer industry. Perhaps that is the reason why her magnificently colourful drafts – actually, her dreams turned to handblown glass – are quite so vibrant, so natural, yet simultaneously

The collections of Helle Mardahl …

… draw contrasting galaxies together: art, functionality and a frisky, coltish manner bouncing with fantasy, inspired by the world of sweets. The brilliant centrepiece are radiant and hand-finished glass objects bursting with powerful pastel colours, often combined in startling, unexpected ways. The New Signature Colours – including mint, rose, honey and pear – awaken fresh views in new combinations. They have been curated personally by Helle Mardahl in order to give birth to aesthetic, almost culinary worlds of luscious experience. The Tableware Collection is an homage to a British institution: afternoon tea. It connects organic shapes and undulating forms with brightly colourful glass designs. Its avowed intention is to immortalize, perhaps even eternalize, little moments of everyday life and bestow upon them a playful, sportive note. In the group known as “All the Candy” this concept is pursued a further step: each glass object resembles a particular dessert which itself embodies a particular taste, such as cherries, plums or chewing gum. Especially iconic are the Bon Bon Signature Pieces – artistic chocolate boxes and objects which reflect Helle’s excentric style. The collection is rounded out by Lighting Objects, in which lamps in rooms styled in chocolate-box colours are immersed in magical light. Added to that is a brashly beautiful collection of highly varied objects which fulfil the most wildly varied needs of everyday life. Each and every piece is finished in accordance with age-old traditional techniques.

The “Signature Glass With A Twist” is Helle’s unique take on the ideal drinking vessel, crafted to evoke a sense of wonder with every sip. In different colours available.

Made-to-measure projects

What this all boils down to is that Helle Mardahl actually constructs her own sweet universe that provides the framework for everything she creates thereafter. “Through the extravagant application of colours and noble materials, as well as a genuine love for the whimsical, bizarre, oddball and unexpected, come to life in her interior consultation, made-to-measure art installations, furniture or lighting fixtures,” the studio promises. What matters is that fantasy recognizes no boundaries, no limits, no fixed territories, when it comes to living life as a colourful shop of sweets, to making everyday tasks more beautiful and more entertaining – whether that means poetic, playful or posh, or all of them at once.