Laura Elizabeth Smith is a London based glass artist, and originallyfrom the island of Bermuda. With over a decade’s experience working with hand-blown glass, she set up her practice in 2014. Laura uses her skills in hot glass to capture the incandescent qualities of glass combined with precious metals, copper, silver and gold. Inspiration is drawn from capturing a moment in time in glass. She specialises in combining metals in hot glass, a process in which shehas crafted a unique aesthetic. She designs and makes lighting, interior accessories and sculpture.

Many inspirations for Laura’s collections begin with growing up on an island where nature and the elemental world are close, and they continueto be a source of concepts. Her most recent work explores the idea of rawopals emerging from the earth: sculptural vessel pieces sit on a low plinth of rusted corten steel, as if emerging from the earth. Laura has created acompanion lighting installation using recycled lighting elements. Her collection celebrates the beauty of opals in their raw state, with polished elements to contrast. To create this special aesthetic the pieces have surface inclusions of metals with bright silvers and burnt black copper, to signify both the elemental quality of opals and their inherent mysticism.

Laura Elizabeth has been a member of Design-Nation since 2018.