"The final project of my Glass 1 course was to produce a piece inspired by a favorite professional glass artist. Somewhat foolishly, I chose to emulate Lino Tagliapietra, the Italian maestro. This piece echo's Tagliapietra's peices through the use of elegant, tapering, organic shapes and the use of the Italian technique, reticello.

Reticello is a technique where color-cored glass canes are rolled around a glass collar to produce a cup. The cup is then twisted, creating a spiral pattern, the cup is broken off and set aside. The bubble of a second up is then produced using the same technique however this one is twisted in the opposite direction, and instead of being broken off is blown inside the previous cup producing a network pattern.

To view a demonstration of the reticello technique click here.

This piece was not made using true reticello technique, as the canes were rolled up around a clear bubble instead of a collar, as in traditional reticello."