Mayauel Ward

Drawing upon the beauty of nature, I hand blow all of my pieces using a technique called torch work. I begin by gathering a small amount of glass from the furnace onto the end of a pipe. I then heat colored glass rods with a torch and apply the different colors directly to the surface of the glass gather. 

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By manipulating these colors, I am able to make flower petals, leaves, fish or any design that I want to create. The next step is to once again dip the pipe back into the furnace and gather more glass over the first layer. By repeating the design process with the colored rods, my piece now has multiple dimensions. 

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After the final layer, I start the blowing and shaping process to turn the molten glass into the final shape. Because each piece is done by hand, no two are exactly alike.