Design by Hand | Alicja Patanowska: Plantation Pots combine Discarded Glasses and Thrown Pots

Thirty-one year old Polish designer Alicja Patanowska has been rescuing discarded beer glasses from the streets of London and giving them new purpose as planters.

Her “Plantation” planters (the name is unfortunate, given its history here in the United States) combine handmade ceramic inserts, which sit inside the glasses. You can put a plant into the insert, fill the glass with water and see the plant’s root system as it grows.

Patanowska states on her web site that the project began from her need to find a symbolic use for things which have been abandoned. She spent more than a month walking the streets of London between 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. searching bus stops, benches, alleys and shopping carts for beer glasses left behind by the city’s litterbug drunks. In addition to a planter, the design can also be turned upside down and used as a greenhouse during seed germination.

Above image: “Plantation” design by Alicja Patanowska.

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