Rondels
Rondels are a flat circle of glass. Simple until you know that the flat disk begins as a spherical bubble inside a gather of molten glass. Then I add color. Nowhere in my experience of hot glass have I seen the response of heat and color chemistry as clearly demonstrated as in rondels.
Glass artisans describe a more heat responsive color as “soft” and a less heat responsive color as “stiff”. And again this sounds simple, until you begin mixing these soft and stiff colors to produce a visual effect. That visual often goes hand in hand with form shifts. Pulling cane, and designing with murrini provides a huge number of possible complications.
I began my obsession with cane and murrini in a series of classes at the Corning Glass Studio. The complex art of pulling cane and manipulating murrini has fascinated me ever since. Color combination fill many drawers with long sections of cane waiting to be cut to size and incorporated into molten glass.
Solid color, opaque color, transparent color, powders, frit and multiple layers of clear glass.
Starting from the center a single golden yellow square murrini. The second ring is Adventurine Green Lace, followed by a ring of golden and a third ring of bright orange murrini. The outermost ring are flecks of cherry red.
The center of this rondel features a square murrini of lavender, a soft color that responds strongly to heat. Following are rings of mixed blues, violet and white murrini, and repeat of the mixed blues near the rim.
This rondel shows how heat and color interact. Lace murrini in mixed blues at center, surrounded by lavender and navy. The lace cane repeats as the second ring, followed by a soft pink and white combination murrini.
A study in white, smoke, and a transparent violet. The white is a more heat responsive color than smoke, and forms the undulating rim.
Soft pinks and blues that began as a square pattern, ringed with another greenish blue occupy the center of this rondel. The outer ring is a contrasting warm gold.
Another square pattern that morphed to roundish. This one begins with four nave murrini that are surrounded by yellow and blue and white. The rim has a school of yellow flecks.
This design began with a purple powder applied in spokes, around a freeform pick up of mixed blues. The powder spreads gently to the side as the work is turned.
A Z pickup. The murrini are laid out to be picked up across the bottom of the bubble, and wrapped up the sides. The distribution of color dictates the shape.
Multiple blues and white make for a wild ride when you are blowing glass, and I never really know what shape will result from rings of these most heat responsive colors.
Sometimes I just need a simple combination of lines. This spiral is trickier to make than it looks, but how can I resist my favorite lime green?
Mixing four colors across murrini and cane, doesn’t always look like the sketch in your head. But it is usually interesting to see pinks and violet together.
Another Z pick up, bottom and up two sides of the bubble of molten glass. This combination of colors, a transparent aqua over white, and two pink give a more balanced heat response, and a more conservative shape.
My son dubbed this design “Green eggs and ham” From the yellow and green round murrini at the center to spokes of a reddish orange pair of rings it fills the plate.
Combining soft, heat responsive colors with stiffer, slower heating colors creates the overlay of red and green in this rondel.
Sometimes I just need to dare myself to try colors together! This Z pickup is a simple combination of adventurine green and a warm yellow.