Distorted Floral - Mark Bickers
Distorted Floral - Mark Bickers
by Mark Bickers£550.00
Distorted Floral: A free-blown glass bowl decorated with a sandblasted floral relief. Re-heated and hot-worked, the piece is intentionally warped, transforming classic botanical motifs into a fluid, glassy form.
My day-to-day glassmaking is production-focused, so these pieces are an escape—a labour of love for the sake of materiality. They allow me to combine my inner computer geek with my obsession with glass as a process. The motif is isolated from traditional floral decorative wallpaper, then digitized and distorted. This is translated into a vinyl mask, which allows for the deep sandblast carving of the straight-sided blank.
The piece is then carefully reheated and reintroduced to the glory hole. This serves a dual purpose: it polishes the imagery while simultaneously distorting the form at the same location the artwork is manipulated. I enjoy the tension in this combination: the precision characteristic of the digital design, which then becomes fluid as the glass returns to its natural, molten state.