Anselm Croze is the founder of Anselm Kitengela Hot Glass, a Kenyan company making glass items from recycled glass.
Croze who grew up in Limuru has been in the business for over 30 years.
He got into the business after graduating from university where he had pursued a course in business administration.
Here is Croze’s story as told by WoK.
Background
Croze was raised in Kenya and did both his primary and secondary school education in local schools before joining university.
He joined the United States International University – Africa (USIU) where he graduated with a degree in International Business Administration.
After graduating from university, Croze worked at his mother’s studio for some time before leaving to start his own business.
“We have a foundation of artistic background in our family and of course that informed my process assisting my mother in her studio when I left university,” he said.
Starting the business was not easy, Croze explained that he looked for funding for more than two years to set up the business.
“Most of the people that I spoke with said that this was not a viable business plan, I ignored that because I wanted to inject this into the craft environment
Croze explained that he got the idea of starting the business after noticing a gap in the Kenyan craft environment.
He noted that while the craft industry has wood carvers, juakali artisans and such, there was no glassworks.
“The entire medium was missing and my mother working in stained glass, also needed flat glass for her process and so I went on a course to see what molten glass was all about,” he explained.
In the beginning, Croze’s idea was making flat glass, now that his mother needed them for her business, however, he later realized he could do more than just flat glasses.
“When I saw what the process with, it kind of hooked me at that point and I saw we could make more than just the flat glass that way my initial intent
“From there I didn’t really look back because the process is incredibly meditative and requires a lot of focus and discipline to do,” he said.
Products
The main products of Anselm Kitengela Hot Glass include prosaic tableware glassware, jugs, vases, drinking glasses and tumblers.
The company also does lighting by making chandeliers, single lighting and varieties of experimental lights.
They also do a technique called aldevere which involves casting glass slabs into concrete after which they make furniture out of it.
“The majority of raw materials that we use are recycled glass or scrap glass from bottles and window glass
“We talk with glass supplier and instead of them paying for the scrap glasses to be taken away, we pay them a nominal amount to take their clean scrap,” he said.
