Belle Jars, 2024 dimensions variable Found and handblown glass, imitation gold leaf The bell jar occupies a well-established place in the history of glass objects. Originally developed as a piece of scientific apparatus for creating vacuums, it became an essential piece of display hardware during the Victorian era. Collections of rare species-butterflies, beetles, taxidermy- and other objects from the natural world could be isolated and observed in a protected environment. This piece inverts its usual role, celebrating the bell jar itself (which display a variety of surface decorations and Venetian cane techniques), which then becomes the subject to be observed. A short history of Venetian cane techniques The Venetians, working glass on the island of Murano since 1291, sought and rewarded innovations that would give them a competitive edge in the emerging global market of luxury goods. One of their most innovative techniques was filigrana, in which a vessel was formed by fusing together thin canes of coloured glass to form a continuous, patterned wall. This technique embedded a pattern in the body of the glass itself as it was being made, rather than simply applying a pattern to the surface of the glass after it had been made. By this means, the pattern gives evidence of the process of glassblowing-it stretches, inflates and twists with the molten glass as it is shaped by temperature, gravity, centrifugal force and hand tools