Where Modern Design Meets Centuries of Czech Glassmaking

At Loczi, we love a good material story. Even better when it involves color, craftsmanship, centuries-old techniques and a little bit of magic. Enter SkLO.

SkLO has long been a Loczi go-to for sculptural lighting and objects. So when we recently invited their team into our San Francisco studio to show us what they’ve been up to, we were very happy to geek out over glass for a while. And there’s a lot to geek out about.

SkLO operates between Northern California and the Czech Republic, creating lighting, furniture, accessories and objects centered around handblown glass. The team is based in Healdsburg, while the glass is handblown, assembled and shipped from the Czech Republic; home to one of the world’s great glassmaking traditions.

The beauty is in how SkLO takes that old-world craft and makes it feel completely modern.

Craft Is Kind of the Point

SkLO Partner and Lead Designer Karen Gilbert is an American craft artist who studied metals and glass at California College of the Arts here in the Bay Area. Her background in jewelry and sculpture is easy to spot once you know to look for it.

The connections matter. The proportions matter. The way glass meets metal or stone matters.

Karen's process is also refreshingly hands-on. Rather than designing exclusively on paper, she makes and fabricates prototypes herself, exploring materials and ideas through the act of making. That connection between designer and maker is a big part of what makes SkLO feel special.

And then there's the glass.

Because every piece is handblown, there are subtle variations from one to the next. SkLO doesn't try to hide them. Those variations are part of the beauty, a reminder that an actual human being made the thing hanging over your dining table.

We like that.

And Then There’s the Color

Anyone who knows Loczi knows we're not exactly afraid of color.

SkLO's glass palette gives us plenty to play with, and their Custom Glass Color program lets designers use colors from the broader SkLO palette across different products.

Translation: more opportunities to find exactly the right color for exactly the right room. Yes, please.

What’s New at SkLO?

SkLO recently collaborated with design studio AvroKO on an extensive lighting collection that introduced a new design language for the brand. Now they're continuing to push that exploration with new pieces across the SkLO Light and Object Collections.

We love seeing a company with centuries of craft behind it continue to experiment rather than simply repeating what already works.

Made to Stick Around

SkLO describes its work as “archival”: pieces designed to last rather than follow a trend for a few seasons.

That philosophy resonates with us.

SkLO combines contemporary manufacturing with heritage Czech glassblowing techniques and high-quality materials to create objects meant to become part of a home for a very long time.

We talk a lot about sustainability in design, and sometimes the simplest version is this: buy fewer things. Buy better things. Keep the things you love.

A Resource, Not Just a Product

One of our favorite things about working with SkLO is that they don't think of designers simply as customers.

As they put it:

“We don't see ourselves as just designing products, we see SkLO as a resource to designers.”

They create the vocabulary; we get to play with it.

A fixture might be used in a combination or setting they never anticipated. Colors get mixed. Scale changes. A piece designed in the Czech Republic suddenly becomes the thing that makes a San Francisco dining room sing.

That's where things get fun.