"Jeweled" Egg - Handblown glass sculpture

Handblown green, gold, grey, and white glass sculpture, created using the ancient Venitian technique of murrine (disks of colored glass). The result is a detailed color pattern on a background of clear glass. 

NOTE: This sculpture was selected for the summer 2025 Compendium juried show and is currently on display in the Grossman Gallery at Lafayette College in Easton, Pensylvania. If it does not sell during the show, it will be made available here, beginning in Fall 2025.

Murrine are fabricated by first pulling canes (rods of colored glass), often complex canes with multiple layers of color (one studio day). For this piece, some of those canes were chopped directly into short segments.  Others were cut into 5-6 inch long segments that were then assembling into a patterned bundle (another day). The completed bundles were heated in a kiln, picked up on a blowpipe, fused together and then that fused bundle is pulled out into a rod approximately a half-inch to an inch in diameter (another day). That rod was then broken or cut into disks (another day), which are called murrine. To make this piece, these murrine and the short segments of cane were laid out in a two-dimensional sheet, heated to fuse them together, and then rolled up into a three-dimensional object (another day). This sculpture is sold with a transparent acrylic ring to support it for display, as seen in the images. This “jeweled egg” sculpture is one of a kind and was blown by the artist (David L Smith) with a unique shape and pattern. Because this is hand-blown, there are small bubbles and tool marks present in the piece. These are artifacts of the process and testify to its handblown nature. This sculpture is a piece of art and is signed and dated (2024) by the artist. Inspired by the famed eggs once presented to the royal families of Russia by a certain jeweler, but also infused with contemporary flair, the egg is a treasure sure to be cherished by anyone lucky enough to acquire it. It makes the perfect gift for that hard-to-shop-for person on your list. It's for sure they don't already have this one-of-a-kind piece of art!