Milan 2014: German designer Laura Jungmann has collaborated with glassmaker Cornelius Réer to reform mass-produced glass items into sculptural vessels.

The bespoke Samesame glass objects are created by "upcycling" existing glassware using traditional glassblowing techniques.

"The term upcycling in this case is not used to describe a recycling process, where you use waste, it's the upcycling of a low-value industrial object," Jungmann told Dezeen. "By transforming a mass-produced bottle into a new product, like a water or wine carafe, these disposable products increase in value and you extend their lifetime."

Shown at Largo Claudio Treves 5 in Milan's Brera district last month, the collection is an evolution of Laura Jungmann's Product Design diploma – titled "Same, Same. But Different" and completed in 2013 – for which she reformed glass waste products.

Samesame uses new industrially-produced glassware and increases its value with traditional skills and craftsmanship.

The collection includes candle holders, carafes, decanters and vases all made from beer and wine bottles.

To reform the items, Réer holds each bottle with a blowpipe and reheats it using a typical glassblowing oven.

When the glass reaches the right temperature and viscosity, he uses glassblowing tools and techniques to change the object's shape.

A beer bottle was picked up from the neck and re-inflated, while a clear water bottle was held from the bottom and the neck opened up, transforming it into a carafe.

"Some of the products get new functions, like the water carafe, some gain a new quality just through the contradictory aesthetic of the industrial features combined with the handmade character," said Jungmann. "Samesame is an attempt to show an alternative concept of production - the collection is a tribute to an increasingly forgotten trade."

Photography is by Philip Radowitz.