Green, White, and Black Murrine Vase

A handblown glass vase patterned with a variety of green, white, and black murrine. Murrine are disks of patterned glass and these murrine were made from complex cane.  To make this cane, clear or colored glass was formed into a cylinder the size of an index finger on the end of a steel rod. Then additional layers of clear and colored glass were added to that cylinder, until it was the size of a soup can. The whole mass was heated, attached to a second metal rod and drawn out to turn that cylinder into a pencil-diameter rod, 30-40 feet long.  After cooling, that rod was chopped into thin disks. This was repeated multiple times, pulling and chopping cane for each of the different color patterns. 

Those disks were later assembled into a sheet and fused together in a reheating furnace.   Then that hot and flexible sheet of murrine was rolled up on the surface of a bubble of clear glass to produce the pattern seen here. and inflated into its final form.  Several separate studio days are required for this process.  

IMPORTANT: This piece is currently on consignment to the Skaneateles Artisans gallery in Skaneateles, New York (in the Finger Lakes). It may be purchased here online, but will be shipped from the gallery, rather than from my studio. A portion of the proceeds will go to the gallery, consistent with my consignment contract with them. 

Hand washing strongly recommended.