sculpture

Before the development of the Studio Glass movement, artists conducted limited experiments with hot glass in their own studios, preferring warm glass processes such as kiln fusing and slumping. During the 1950s and 1960s, some artists and designers, who called themselves “designer-craftsmen,” explored innovative uses for fused glass and enamels. One of them was Frances Stewart Higgins (b. 1912). She and her husband, Michael, produced a wide range of commercial tableware and one-of-a-kind objects. From 1957 to 1966, the Higginses contracted with the Dearborn Glass Company in Illinois to produce their designs, but they continued to make work in their studio. This experimental vessel anticipates the trend in nonfunctional vase forms characteristic of the early Studio Glass movement. It was made by heating pieces of crushed colorless glass until they fused but still retained their original shape. The vessel is decorated with a simple strip of gold and white enamel.