Made in Hackney: How Sarma Krumins switched from gardening to building glass vases after a back injury

Each week the Gazette takes to the streets to unearth something being manufactured right here in Hackney. This week we visit Sarma Krumins who makes mini-greenhouses in Netil House, London Fields

Sarma making a terrarium. Picture: Erica Rax - Credit: Erica Rax

Sarma Krumins started cutting glass using a diamond scorer for the first time aged 14, inspired by her glass artist mother.

But the vase maker started out her career in gardening, and only switched to craftsmanship because of a back injury.

Three years ago she found a way to combine her interest, and she has been making terrariums – glass vessels for plants – ever since.

She plants cacti and succulents in her mini-greenhouses and sells them under the guise Arma Glass from a studio in Netil House, Westgate Street, London Fields.

Sarma's terrariums. Picture: Erica Rax - Credit: Erica Rax

She told the Gazette: “Arma Glass sounded powerful, and the pieces I make are quite structural. It all starts from one shape like a pyramid or cube, and then I make a 3D object.”

Prices for a 12cm diameter terrarium start at £20, and she will make anything “as big as anyone wants to commission me” – with the biggest so far a metre wide.