Collector & Archived Art
This piece began at the edge of a pond on a summer afternoon — moving quietly through the cattails, watching for the sudden stillness that meant a bullfrog was nearby, or the flash of a dragonfly threading between the reeds. That moment of patient, attentive looking is what Pond Life holds.
The vase draws inspiration from the series of nature-themed bud vases that preceded it, and represents one of its most fully realized expressions. Worked in Argentium silver — chosen for its exceptional tarnish resistance and its receptivity to fine surface work — the piece is built through chasing and repoussé, the imagery pushed into relief from within and refined from without. Cattail leaves rise and interweave across the vessel's surface, their faces brought to a high polish while the cattail heads themselves are left deliberately textured — a contrast that rewards close looking. Where the composition called for it, areas of silver have been cut away entirely, allowing the blue glass beneath to breathe through the openings and shift with the light. Several of the silver reeds continue past the rim of the glass entirely, reaching upward into open air — a detail that dissolves the boundary between vessel and living plant, and gives the piece an uncontained, still-growing quality.
The vase rests on a sterling silver lily pad, its forged cattail branches curling around the base. At the pad's edge, a small cast sterling silver frog sits in perfect stillness — unhurried, watching, entirely at home. A custom blown blue glass insert completes the vessel, allowing it to hold water and flowers as naturally as it holds the eye.
One of a Kind
Dimensions: 7" height x 4" diameter base
Year Completed: 2018
Photography by Image Quest Photography/Terry Weckbaugh
Collector & Archived Art
This piece began at the edge of a pond on a summer afternoon — moving quietly through the cattails, watching for the sudden stillness that meant a bullfrog was nearby, or the flash of a dragonfly threading between the reeds. That moment of patient, attentive looking is what Pond Life holds.
The vase draws inspiration from the series of nature-themed bud vases that preceded it, and represents one of its most fully realized expressions. Worked in Argentium silver — chosen for its exceptional tarnish resistance and its receptivity to fine surface work — the piece is built through chasing and repoussé, the imagery pushed into relief from within and refined from without. Cattail leaves rise and interweave across the vessel's surface, their faces brought to a high polish while the cattail heads themselves are left deliberately textured — a contrast that rewards close looking. Where the composition called for it, areas of silver have been cut away entirely, allowing the blue glass beneath to breathe through the openings and shift with the light. Several of the silver reeds continue past the rim of the glass entirely, reaching upward into open air — a detail that dissolves the boundary between vessel and living plant, and gives the piece an uncontained, still-growing quality.
The vase rests on a sterling silver lily pad, its forged cattail branches curling around the base. At the pad's edge, a small cast sterling silver frog sits in perfect stillness — unhurried, watching, entirely at home. A custom blown blue glass insert completes the vessel, allowing it to hold water and flowers as naturally as it holds the eye.
One of a Kind
Dimensions: 7" height x 4" diameter base
Year Completed: 2018
Photography by Image Quest Photography/Terry Weckbaugh
