The stemless glasses and small carafes incorporate several different glass making techniques. The flowers are creating using murrine, which features in many of the collections at Robert Held Art Glass. Making murrine is an intricate process where different colours of glass are added one over the other to create a multi-coloured core. The next step is to a layer of cane around the core. Very thin rods of coloured glass are laid out on a metal plate then heated. The murine is rolled over the cane and it becomes incorporated; sometimes two or three layers of cane are added. Keep in mind that the glass needs to be reheated several times during the process and you’ll get an idea of how challenging murrine can be to create. The murrine is placed in a kiln to cool overnight then cut into very thin slices using a saw with a diamond blade.
This composite photo shows details of the finished murrine. The orange flower has a dark core surrounded by a layer of orange cane. The yellow flower on the right starts with a core of dark yellow surrounded by red. Surrounding this murine is a layer of white cane which is then overlain by a layer of yellow cane. Sean’s collection also incorporates “lip wrap”, or trail, a technique that creates the bright yellow colour on the rim of the glasses. This involves heating a rod of coloured glass then wrapping it in a very fine ribbon around the top of the stemless glass or throat of the carafe. Sounds easy? Think again.
We invite you to come into Robert Held Art Glass gallery and browse through all of the collections. There’s a good chance that you’ll see Sean at work. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a demonstration is worth much more.
