This piece, from Thomas Spake’s cascade series, is inspired by the waterfalls in the forests surrounding him in Tennessee.

To make a piece he will lay out, on a steel plate, glass chips and powders in the configuration that he wants. Once he starts blowing the piece, with the glass on the blow pipe, he will roll across the pattern and then heat it, melting the pattern into the glass on the blow pipe. He will then continue to blow the piece into the shape that he wants and put that piece into a kiln to cool down. After the piece cools down, he will come back over the course of several days and sand blast the piece and then use a diamond wheel to carve into the piece revealing the color underneath exposing the waterfall among the rocks.

This piece is colored in tones of tan, gray and crimson glass chips and powders, with an translucent blue interior and has a flattened shape with approximate dimensions of 7" tall x 7" wide x 3"deep.