One Realistic Glass Strawberry Sculpture, Hand Blown and Life-Sized

These glass strawberries are the most technically difficult berries I make. I form them using the lamp working process, which involves melting colored glass rods in the flame of a torch. The glass is melted over and around a loop in a length of copper wire of appropriate thickness, which then becomes the strawberry stem. Because of the loop, the stem can never be pulled free of the glass strawberry.

Although the strawberries you see pictured here are a ripe medium red, I can also make them in a darker over-ripe purple red, or even a white "alpine" variety. The size (not including the stem) can be anywhere from small (about 3/4 inch high) to large (a little bigger than 1-1/4 inches high).

Once I have made the basic strawberry shape, the time-consuming job of adding the seeds begins. Each seed is placed one at a time into its own recessed seat in a process that takes up to a minute per seed. The smallest strawberries have more than 100 seeds, and the largest have several hundred seeds.

After all the seeds have been placed, it's time to finish the strawberry by adding the green sepals (leaves). This is the most dangerous time. The challenge is to keep the entire body of the strawberry evenly warm (about 900 - 1000 degrees F) while adding the sepals, because if any portion of the strawberry becomes too cold the whole thing will explode due to thermal shock. If the sepals get too warm, they melt into green blobs. It’s quite a balancing act! The final step is to put the strawberry in the kiln for controlled cooling.

Each glass strawberry is priced according to its size. The cost of your order will depend on how many strawberries you order, and their sizes. Your order will be carefully packaged with biodegradable plant fiber batting inside a 100% recycled paper gift box with a pretty red stretch bow.