Friends of OURS

Cedric mitchell

For Summer of 2022 we decided to push the boundaries of what we’d accomplished with our past Friends of OURs, and in return had an incredibly memorable and inspiring weekend that reflects the true intentions behind Friend of OURs. We chose someone who truly understands the potential of glass and its ability to connect people. Who has spent the last decade learning, selling, teaching, and innovating the glass community around him. Back in February, Cedric Mitchell, originally from Oklahoma and now residing in Los Angeles, was kind enough to accept an offer to be our Summer 2022 Friend of OURS - and we couldn’t be more excited that he said yes.  

Cedric regularly teaches and participates in residencies and craft schools around the country and his work can be found in a number of fine design catalogs. We first started communicating over Instagram, a like here and a comment there, a few interactions that made me aware of our affinity for similar aesthetics in glass. Though bright color palettes, similarly inclined designs, and the purchase of a graphite footing tool was about as closest our connection was up to that point.  In February, considering how to push ourselves and what the Friends of OURs could be, Cedric became became the perfect match for more reasons than we initially realized. When we reached out, he agreed, and the plan was set in motion.

We decided within OUR Glass, almost immediately, that this would be very different than our previous artists. Cedric would be the first artist we would be traveling to work with, which quickly made us realize it would be a quite intensive weekend. Creating and capturing an entire season’s worth of work in two and a half days. From design, to prep, to execution, we knew this would be a packed timeline, and we wanted to document the full process of collaboration - starting with the design.  

Cedric Mitchell Design (CMD) and OUR Glass both survive by making drinkware, so we quickly decided designing a piece that reflected that was a must. Sketching tumbler and decanter ideas reminiscent of the Venini dual toned vases from the 50s, but pushing harder into a more fitting and modern design.  Moving far outside of the OURGlass color palette to bring the aesthetics together, tipping shapes over, angled bottoms and hot attached marbles, transparent and opaques. Accumulating in an amazingly unique set of leaning neon drinkware. 

Finishing the first day with our function ware we decided to come back the second day and more beyond to something wilder. 

From our first few moments designing, we had discussed spending time away from functional items, something we were both very familiar with, and making objects that were completely sculptural. We spent our lunch break continuing to refine sketched, putting together a few shapes that continually came up. White-on-white, cane and stuff cups, patterns, tiered sections, which came together into a soft white piece with a tight white zig zag pattern, and two flat disc tiers that alternated directions. In all there’s not a lot to write about making this piece. It went perfectly. Many glass blowers are drawn to the art because of certain moments in the hotshop. These moments often happen early, and less and less the more you learn and work.  These moments are fast and smooth, where time melts away and you forget about hunger, laser focus is on and there are blinders surrounding the studio. There was music, and great conversation, but it’s hard to recall now even a short few weeks later.  I do remember a perfectly heated plate of cane, a stuff cup free of bubbles, heats used perfectly to make each tiered sections, and a sculpture punty that sealed instantly. It’s all major glassblower language that has everything to do with the process of creation, but for me, these moments solidified that my hunch was correct and that in a very short period of time, Cedric truly was a Friend of OURs. 

The weather was a great escape from Minnesota, the glass was incredible, but for the OUR Glass crew, it was a wildly inspirational look into what we set out to create with Friends of OURs. On top of Cedric’s design and incredible work, he also is surrounded by a collective that is the envy of artists everywhere.  A blend of creatives all working separately but parallel, to better the community around them. Cedric is a co-founder and leading member of a group, Crafting the Future, which is a non profit organization dedicated to connecting BIPOC artists with opportunities to help them thrive. It’s well known and understood that creating art is a stress reliever, but it’s less known that there are many students who just don’t get a chance to try or pursue it. This is a terrible loss. Thinking of my first opportunities to taking art classes outside of school, it was summer drawing camps and sculpture workshops as an elementary age kid, that started to open my eyes to the power of creativity. Cedric and Crafting the Future is making sure that students in marginalized communities and circumstances, that aren’t actively advocated for in the art field and have traditionally been forgotten about, are able to get that same kind of early inspiration I was able to. We had the privilege to see Cedric working with a group of high school students, and while glass is a passion, it was not hard to see that this was something beyond that.  To help continue spreading this message, we have decided that all profits made from the pieces sold from our Summer 2022 collection with Cedric will be donated to Crafting the Future.  More details will follow.

Cedric, you played an amazing host, your work is beautiful, and your story inspirational.  It was a pleasure getting to work alongside you and we can’t wait for the next time we get to share a studio.  As I mentioned in the beginning, this feature is so exciting and we can’t wait to share it all with you.  Thanks again Cedric, until next time!

-Tynan Pratumwon

Website: cedricmitchelldesign.com

Instagram: @cedricmitchelldesign

Crafting the Future: https://www.craftingthefuture.org/

Images from

Cedric Mitchell Design + OUR Glass Collaboration

coming soon