Continuing my sculpture of the “nymph” from folio 82r of the Voynich Manuscript, my next step was to make a glass cup shape for the porcelain figure to stand in. In the video, I documented a bit of the process of making the cup with flameworked borosilicate glass. Starting with 4” borosilicate glass tubing, I shaped the cup and added the “stem” (it looks similar to a wine glass, but without the foot). This is designed so that it can later fit into the rest of the sculpture. I also made the detail where the stem meets the cup so that it matches the original drawing (these shapes are called a “Maria” in glassworking terms; it’s made by heating and turning the glass evenly and then compressing it so that a small section of glass becomes wider.)

I was planning to continue on to the next part and pour translucent blue epoxy resin into the cup, which will support the figure and also make it look like she’s standing in water—but I realized that I need to get a particular kind of resin for this project—so as soon as I do, that part will be coming soon!