Sometimes a piece is so striking, so very much one of my absolute favorites, that it deserves a post all its own. This one is most definitely in that category.

Oh, that bubble on the right? It looks like an encased gem, and is actually made up of fine silver encased between layers of transparent glass, with an air bubble trapped within. Here’s what it looks like staring right at you:

A more direct view of that first side (those silver dots are in fact made of fine silver wire melted into the glass):

Other side:

I’m in love.

(Available at my Etsy shop.)

Meandering sparkling adventurine and fizzy brass bubbles, in “Flaunting their foam”:

Other side:

“Your sky cries water”:

Other side:

More copper mesh and eeeeeeeee!! look at my floral implosion! in “I said yes”:

Other side:

A purple adaption of this design, “In the lining of your skin”:

Other side:

Here’s an older bead with actual salt inclusions, finally turned into “I love you like salt”:

(As usual, you can buy my glass art jewelry at my Etsy shop!)

“Como el robledal”
(glass, brass, aged silver)

This title is from my favorite passage of Almafuerte’s Battle Cry:

“Procede como Dios que nunca llora;
o como Lucifer, que nunca reza;
o como el robledal, cuya grandeza
necesita del agua y no la implora…”

transl:

“Proceed like God who never cries;
or like Lucifer, who never prays;
or like the oak, whose magnificence
needs the water and doesn’t beg…”

I know my best pieces by the way I look at them as they come out of the kiln and think about how much it’ll break my heart when someone buys them and takes them away. May they get such love someday, at least.

“Things that are far yet near”
(glass, brass, silver)

The title is also the title of one of Sei Shōnagon’s lists in her Pillow Book.

“The country whence the shadows fall”
(glass, fine silver, aged silver)

Sold.

The title is from George MacDonald’s The Golden Key, where the two protagonists search for a way to find the beautiful, magical land from whence the densely layered and entrancing shadows fall.

Silver leaf instead of brass frit, here. I love incorporating metals into my glass.

“Saffron, nutmeg, dove, earth, blood”
(glass, silver)

The title is from this amazing, insane list of trends for summer 2009. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. No, seriously. Since it was first published in 2008. Yep. Did I mention that I’m a bit of a word hoarder?

It’s always an adventure trying get the full range of colors I want out of this odd lot glass, Dark Aurora.

“A previously unmentioned army”
(glass, brass, silver)

The title is from Joel Stickley trying too hard to be Ernest Hemingway.

“The superfluity of ribbons”
(glass, silver)

Sold.

Another title drawn from my favorite Stephen Dunn Poem, How to Be Happy: Another Memo to Myself.

Other side, for some variety:

“Thrice around the world”
(glass, silver, hand-dyed (not by me) silk ribbon)

The title is from Hitherby Dragons: Ways of Avoiding Migraines

Other side:

Wacky close-up:

“One dream may hide another”
(glass, silver)

Reserved.

The title is from One Train May Hide Another by Kenneth Koch.

“What will happen after”
(glass, silver)

The title is from Hitherby Dragons: The Little Rocket”

The relevant quote: “I have a thousand words for what will happen when I hit,” the rocket says, “but none for what will happen after.”