Handblown glass vase with shipping intricate pale blue and coffee brown pattern

This conical vase stands 10 5/8" tall and is 5 1/2" wide. The eye-catching, intricate pattern is a result of sequential introductions of the core molten glass into different sized "optic molds"--metallic forms that create vertical bands of concentrated color. These bands are then subjected to subsequent manipulations, such as twisting, to reconfigure the vertical lines into circumferential striations; and introduction of new vertical lines over the horizontal ones using a second optic. Additional accents are provided when a pair of distinctly different colors is melted together and a strand of that composite is threaded screw-wise around the corrugated, post-optic surface. When the threaded piece is then reintroduced into the glory hole (the 2,600-degree furnace in which the glassblower reheats the piece between brief periods of tooling and blowing), only the "thread" in contact with the corrugations is retained, while the thread suspended between corrugations melts away. As the piece continues to be worked, the two different colors within the remaining molten spot of thread are flattened as the corrugations are smoothed out shipping. This creates a succession of distinctive patterns, which vary in an unpredictable but predictably incredible continuum of shifting shapes. The piece has an iridescent blue lip , and sits upon a sizeable foot of clear glass.
#428.