August 22, 2020
The Colorful Glassware Blowing Up Instagram Was Inspired by Sunday Dinners at Big Mama’s House
Stephanie Summerson Hall has amazing memories of her childhood in Charleston, South Carolina, and especially of Sunday dinners at her Big Mama’s house—the table set with colorful glassware her grandmother had found in local antique shops.
Hall grew up to become a lawyer and a serial entrepreneur. She spent 10 years as a business and corporate tax lawyer in Washington, D.C., and started two different wedding rentals company, according to Domino magazine.
But eventually she came back to her roots, moving back home and rekindling her love of the colorful glassware from her youth. In fact, the idea to make and sell it came to her after not being able to find what she wanted to fill her own collection.
“I wanted to have some pieces of colored glass in my house, because they were pieces that I loved, and I wanted them to fit with my aesthetic,” Hall told Architectural Digest. “I was really disappointed that what I could find in terms of colored glass was on the secondary vintage market.”
Hall put five years of research and design into her colorful glassware, searching for glassmakers, hiring an industrial designer, formulating colors, and studying samples, before launching in October 2019.
“Estelle Colored Glass is inspired by my grandmother, Estelle, who loved antiquing and had a special day of the week where she visited her favorite shops looking for new treasures in small neighboring South Carolina towns,” Hall writes on the company’s website.
“During the summer months, I had the pleasure of coming along on many of these treasure hunts. My favorite collection that she was always adding to was her colored glass collection. This marked the start of my love for colored glass.”
“My grandmother often used her colored glass pieces at Sunday dinners. Her signature dessert was a from-scratch decadent vanilla pound cake often beautifully displayed on a colored glass cake stand and served with a side of strawberry jello topped with whipped cream,” Hall continues.
She added that she hopes her glassware helps create special memories for her customers, “just like the memories I have of time spent with my grandmother, Estelle, affectionately also known as ‘Big Mama.'”
The luxury glassware is hand-blown by artisans in Poland at a company that’s been around more than 100 years. The brand currently offers wineglasses, stemless wine glasses, rocks glasses, champagne coupes, decanters, and cake stands in a range of soft pastels and jewel tones.
“It’s really gratifying to know that you’ve created something truly out of passion,” Hall told Domino. “It’s not a necessity, but it’s something that’s going to bring another person happiness. I wanted the pieces to be memorable and have personality—and hopefully become heirlooms.”