Diana Lucia is the founder of the upcycled goods brand [ AMANO ]
Year founded: 2001
Design and office location: Beirut, Lebanon 🇱🇧
Raw material sourcing locations: several cities in Lebanon 🇱🇧
Manufacturing and production location: Beirut, Lebanon 🇱🇧
Meet the founder
Diana Lucia Juri is one of many Lebanese emigrants who was born and raised in Colombia. Over the years, she has spent her life traveling the world, notably living in Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Raised with the values and traditions of Lebanon and Colombia, and influenced by her experiences living in different cultures, she developed an appreciation for handmade crafts.
Diana loves handicrafts and has acquired as many skills as possible over the years; porcelain painting, patchwork, cross-stitch, quilling, mosaic, and jewelry making are just a few of the techniques she has mastered.
Back in Lebanon, Diana spends her time creating on different mediums, experimenting, and constantly improving her skills.
About the Amano brand
Amano, which means "by hand" in Spanish, is a brand intended to encompass and share Diana's love for everything made by hand.
Amano was born from experimentation—bringing together elements from two different worlds. Porcelain painting was Diana's main interest, and she learned the techniques during a stay in the Netherlands. Over the years, she began exploring other mediums and embarked on several different art forms, all under the Amano brand.
As part of her artistic journey, she decided to experiment with fusing glass objects in the kiln usually used to harden porcelain paint at high temperatures.
This gave rise to a collection of beautifully designed glass bottles, which were melted and decorated to serve as custom pieces that can be used for the needs of any home—or as beautiful handmade gifts.
Amano's eco-friendly impact
- Handmade in Lebanon
All creations are designed by hand in Lebanon. The glass bottles used are collected from various sources in Lebanon, where they would otherwise end up in a landfill or, at best, in one of the country's very few recycling plants.
The bottle melting process is entirely carried out by the creator, as are the decorations.
- Upcycling and Zero Waste
The "Amano" brand gives another life to bottles by upcycling them. They are either collected personally or given by people instead of being thrown in the trash. This helps reduce the number of bottles that end up in the trash and thus keeps resources in a virtuous circle that limits emissions. These bottles are repurposed into unique and original decorative objects.
The brand's eco-friendly values:
Diana's project with Amano is entirely based on upcycling, as it involves taking old wine bottles and repurposing them into unique and original decorative objects. By making something new from something old, she keeps resources in a virtuous circle that limits emissions.
The Amano brand is based on zero-waste values by reusing bottles that would normally end up in the trash, helping to prevent the creation of more waste.
All creations are designed in Lebanon with bottles collected from a circle close to the creator.
Amano creations reflect the artistic craftsmanship of the creator, who studied art for years and worked extensively to master bottle melting in the kiln.
Diana creates and designs all Amano objects herself, which, by the way, means "by hand" in Spanish. The bottle melting process is entirely carried out by the creator, as are the decorations.
Each Amano object is unique because glass melting cannot be 100% controlled, which is precisely the creator's goal: to use the unpredictable to renew herself with each creation.
[ Amano is the result of countless hours of experimentation and dedication to a unique and personal handmade touch on each of my pieces. I hope you will appreciate them as much as I enjoyed creating them. ]
