Making a Plasma Wildflower
The Voynich sculpture from my last two posts is still in the works, but meanwhile I took a slight detour among the wildflowers (of the plasma variety). This glass flower is loosely based on a hyacinth or lilac, and while it’s not specifically Voynich-inspired, I am practicing many of the same techniques for both, and I think the Voynich piece in progress will ultimately turn out better for the extra practice.
The process of making the whole flower requires delicate flameworking with a small flame, to make the small clusters of flowers. Each one has four tiny petals, and there are about 16 of them in total. Everything is made as a single, hollow sculpted glass shape, so that later it can be filled with gas and turned into a lighted plasma sculpture.
Video Part 1, the top part of the flower, represents only about 5 minutes out of the entire process of making this flower which took several hours in total. The longer a piece takes to make, the more likely it is to crack while working, due to the strain that develops in the glass as some parts cool unevenly. That’s why after making every couple of small flowers, I am flame annealing the whole piece (quickly heating the entire shape all over, which reduces some of the strain as I work.) There can’t be any cracks whatsoever in a finished plasma piece; it has to be completely airtight in order to be filled with gas and for it to be able to light.
Video Part 2 shows assembly of the flower with a tall stem, along with electrode which is required to light the sculpture later.
After several attempts I made two flowers and three leaves, hopefully to be lighted soon. The flowers will glow purple, and the leaves will glow green. (They look white when unlit, but that is because the inside is coated with a phosphor that glows different colors when activated.)
