Behind The Design: Cloches

Originating in Italy during the early 1600s, cloches were used to protect plants from cold winter winds when the frosts settled in. The name, “cloche,” comes from a French origin meaning “bell,” which typically is the traditional shape of the translucent cover. The bell-shaped glass cover can be placed on numerous boards and trays thus the possibilities are endless when it comes to displaying these decorative pieces. At etúHOME, our favorite way to use our cloches is of course of over food… and the options are limitless: cakes, cheese, meats, dips and more.

A frequent question we often get is ‘how do we create these classically beautiful cloches?’ In line with our philosophy of using existing products and recycled materials to create new ones, we pride ourselves on the extreme care we put into product development ensuring we create as little waste as possible.

We take antique demijohn bottles that we collect throughout the European countryside and create two new products: our demijohn cloche and demijohn bowl. Carefully cutting the glass bottle in half with a proprietary method, we are able to limit the waste on broken bottles tremendously. There is a small area on where this cut can be made to guarantee the durability of the glass is not altered once it is split in two. After the cut, we are left with 2 pieces: a cloche, the top half of the bottle, and a bowl, the bottom half of the bottle. What makes these items interesting is that there are small variations in each bottle, lending the perfect touch of authenticity to the piece without the hassle of recurring discrepancies. At etúHOME, the details matter and this is why we first sand down the newly cut edges by hand and then carefully wrap the edge in a special copper tape one by one. Because each piece is touched by hand, any item that does not live up to our high standards is discarded to our glass factory to be melted down and turned into another item. Now the edge is fashionably protected while upholding our brand image of beauty meets function.