Glass: Canopic jars of the Earth

Canopic jars of the Earth.  Glass, water*, air, soil, fur*, cork, sharpie.  2008
(*not in this photo)

jar toppers

Welwitzia jar.  Glass, soil, and cork.  9"x3". 2008

Scops Owl jar.  Glass, air, cork, sharpie.  9.5"x3". 2008

Mekong Giant Catfish jar.  9.75"x2.75". Glass, water*, cork, sharpie. 2008
(*water not in this photo)

Jaguar jar.  9.75"x3". Glass, fur*, cork, sharpie.  2008
(*fur not in this photo)

This shows the fur, which is real jaguar fur that I inherited.

In Egyptian culture (which I find fascinating and glean inspiration from often) a mummy was buried with four jars, sometimes in a box, that housed their internal organs--called canopic jars.  My glass piece was supposed to be a commentary on the state of the Earth, suggesting that the Earth is headed in the direction of death.  The jars house the "internal organs" that make up the Earth.  Soil, water, air, and living things.

Each jar has a head-piece that is meant to be the likeness of an endangered species that is related to each of the Earth's "organs".  The soil is represented by a Welwitschia plant, which has only two leaves that continue to grow its entire life, and proved to be a hard likeness to create.  The air is represented by an animal of flight, the Scops Owl.  Water, by the Mekong Giant Catfish.  For the living things jar, I used a jaguar headpiece, mostly because I had a piece of Jaguar fur that could be then put inside the jar.  Also, jaguars are cool.

I also drew each "organ's" molecular structure on the jars.  The air has different gases found in the air (the more of the substance, the bigger I drew the molecule).  Water just says "H2O".  The living things jar has a segment of DNA's molecular structure.  And I ended up not putting anything on the soil jar because I couldn't figure out what molecular structure to draw because soil is very complex.  (oh well...).

The jars were blown; the heads were done in blow-molds.
This piece did not see total completion.  The original design included a glass box with four compartments, one for each canopic jar, and a shallow bowl in the very center in which sat the heart scarab (see photos below).  The heart scarab was cast, the bowl was slumped plate glass.  I spent some time studying hieroglyphs; the hieroglyphs on the bottom of the heart scarab do actually say something, though I'd have to riffle through my sketch books to remember what it says (something corny, I'm sure).

The glass box did not get finished.  The piece I tried to present (to the class), used two panes of plate glass that sat in a "plus".  I tried to cut out a curved shape in the top where the shallow bowl and heart scarab sat.  I can't remember if I was successful... I do remember that those panes of glass cracked and broke in half (I'm not surprised.... The cuts I had to make in order for them to attached in a "plus" shape made the glass weak along those lines).

Earth's Heart Scarab.  3"x2" ish.  Glass. 2008

side view

front view

back view

top view

bottom view

Monty Python's complete waste of air.

Monty Python's complete waste of air.  16" x 17" x 2.5" thick.  Air in glass.  2006

silly walking and holy grail detail

dead parrot detail

MP foot detail

This is a piece I did for second-semester glass-working class (advanced glass).  Our project was to come up with a "commemorative piece" and use the method of sand-casting for our creation.

I chose to commemorate Monty Python.  My parents (especially my dad) love Monty Python and so I grew up loving them as well.  I appreciate the silliness and Monty Python's self-awareness of their silliness.  I also think that smiling and laughing are among life's greatest treasures, and Monty Python does a great job at creating smiles and laughs.  To commemorate Monty Python, I decided to make them a trophy.  First place for comedy!  The trophy is made out of air which is surrounded by glass (if I was going to commemorate silliness, I had to be silly, right?).  I decided to call the piece "A complete waste of air" in irony: indeed, this piece is more so a waste of glass.  In fact, this piece is incredibly heavy. 

In case you are unfamiliar with Monty Python, I shall explain each element that makes up the trophy.  On the top, we have a "silly walker", which is in reference to a re-occurring skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus (a TV show).  The silly walker is standing on the holy grail, which is of course from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail.  The grail is sitting on two cans of Spam ("Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spammity spaaaam!"), which are flanked by a dead parrot on one side (from the Dead Parrot skit), and the Monty Python foot on the other (from everything Monty Python).  The base is, alas, just a base.

To make this piece, I first had to create sculptures of each element ("positives") and then cast them all in plaster in the trophy form; this made a "negative" of my piece.  Then I cast bonded sand in my plaster mold to create a positive with the sand.  Then I used that sand casting to create my final piece; I created a frame and sand bottom on which I place my sand casting.  Then I poured molten glass over the sand (actually... someone else had to do this part for me b/c this piece required so much glass that I couldn't lift the ladle).  The result was negative space (air) surrounded by glass.  You can see that the bonded sand positive broke in a couple of pieces, especially on the stand (it was made of sand, after all...) resulting in a less than perfect air trophy.  Oh well. 

Emaciated Glass Dog

Emaciated Glass Dog.  Glass, copper.  13"x10"x3.5". 2008.

This was a project I did for third semester Glass Blowing.  The project was the idea of "skin". 
Animal neglect is something that makes my soul sad, my mind angry, and my will wanting.  This piece is meant to be a little disturbing.  I sculpted a copper "skeleton" and slumped a very large, blown glass bubble around it.  I took artistic license to redesign the skeleton--I wanted the skeleton to cause high relief to the slumped glass.