This glass elephant was purchased at Kitengela Glass in Kenya. This is the story behind it as told by an artisan at Kitengela.
"These particular pieces comes from our friends at Ngwenya Glass in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), a remarkable glass studio with a strong tradition of recycling and community engagement. Like us, they work almost entirely with recycled glass -very often old Coca-Cola bottles - which are melted down (using recycled KFC oil) and re-formed into animals and tableware. Their artisans shape each figure by hand, hot sculpting and using a mix of traditional glassblowing techniques and their own adaptations developed over decades.
At Kitengela Hot Glass, we focus on producing our own distinctive styles, but we also showcase work from other African glass studios we admire. It's part of our mission to support the wider network of African glassmakers, and to give our visitors a window into the diversity of approaches across the continent. We find that bringing in these pieces also helps us reduce some of the production pressure on our own workshop, while still offering our guests something beautiful, authentic, and full of story.
So in a way, this elephant and hippo are not just pieces of recycled glass art, but also symbols of a continental collaboration - a small example of how African glassmakers work together to celebrate craft, sustainability and imagination."
