Angelo Fico

My current work involves patterns of color in glass. I strive for clean classic forms consisting of a simple pattern of lines that becomes more complex as it spirals around the piece. The transparent colors blend to create depth and pattern as you look through the vessel. Each stripe in a vase start out as an individual glass rod called a piece of cane. I make these by stretching out a ball of hot colored glass 20 feet then chopping it up into 5 inch sections. I lay out a pattern of 15-25 pieces of colored glass cane on a steel plate. This pattern is heated up until the cane fuses together into a sheet. I then pick up the pattern of glass canes on a blowpipe and start to gradually shape and blow out the vessel. No molds are used in this process. I make all of the cane and a majority of the pieces working alone a few of the larger more elaborate pieces are done with an assistant. As my work has evolved over the last 17 years my passion for glass and the use of traditional Venetian techniques has allowed me to create a dynamic body of work.