Sophie Lou Jacobsen and In Common With Collaborate on New Glass Fixtures

This would make a perfect pendant,” designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen said to herself about a year ago as she stared at a red glass vase she’d made. That sample, distinguished by its seemingly frilly edge, sat on her Brooklyn dining table, just below a light by the New York brand In Common With. Its founders, Nick Ozemba and Felicia Hung, had already approached Jacobsen about a collaboration, so she sent them a sketch. A year later, their new 20-piece Flora collection has bloomed.

Ozemba and Hung, who met at the Rhode Island School of Design, worked as interior and product designers (he for ASH NYC, she for Workstead) before launching In Common With in 2017. Their mission: to create handmade yet affordable fixtures at scale by forming strategic partnerships with craftspeople across the country. The brand’s practical, pared-down lights regularly appear in homes by AD100 titans like Nicole Hollis, Giancarlo Valle, and Ashe Leandro. But in Jacobsen, best known for her colorful tableware, they saw an opportunity to do something more decorative. With her rippling red vase as the jumping-off point, the trio dove into the glassmaking legacy of Murano, in particular the iconic collaborations that took root there, among them architect Carlo Scarpa’s 15-year-long partnership with Paolo Venini.

Teaming with glass artists in New York and Ohio, they brought their ideas to life. A technique called fazzoletto (Italian for “handkerchief”) was used to achieve that wavy, skirt-like effect. Dot and fin embellishments add visual flourish. There was plenty of trial and error. To make a sconce with an undulating rim, for instance, the piece had to be slump molded to ensure a more consistent shape. But all three designers found pleasure in the process. As Ozemba puts it: “We like to make things the way they want to be made.” 
incommonwith.com, sophieloujacobsen.com