American Stickseed
2011
Jesse Townsley, Joshua Steindler, and Chris Roesinger
5 x 7.5 x 6 inches
Flameworked borosilicate glass
(Photo: Cascadilla Photography)
This piece is from the same partnership that created “Fly Ash”, the piece accepted into the New Glass Review 33 competition. I designed the piece, Josh flameworked it, and Chris advised. I think most people who know about flameworking will agree that this was a tour de force performance by Josh. The form, gesture, and getting all those tentacles on the piece without breaking it has to be up there with the great feats of glass art. And after a couple of experiments so that we agreed on the forms, Josh hit this on the first try.
I found the micrograph that the stickseed is based on in: The Bizarre and Incredible World of Plants, Wolfgang Stuppy, Rob Kesseler, and Madeline Harley. Firefly Books/Papadakis Publisher, 2009.