Clipped Grass

By 1982, Zynsky was experimenting with making vessels entirely of fused glass threads. She gave a name to the new technique that she invented. She called it “filet de verre,” or layers of fused glass threads that are hot-formed inside a kiln. The Museum’s vessel Clipped Grass is one of the earliest objects made by Zynsky in her new fused-thread technique. In 1982, it was included in her first exhibition at Theo Portnoy Gallery in New York City, where the Museum purchased it. The thick, uneven threads are typical of Zynsky’s early pieces. Made by Zynsky or by her assistants, the threads were pulled by hand in the hot shop, using the traditional Venetian technique for making cane. Making the glass threads for Clipped Grass took several days. To make a glass thread, a wad of hot glass is picked up onto a pontil, or solid glassmaking rod. A person holding a second pontil, the end of which is heated, attaches his rod to the hot glass and walks quickly across the room. The hot glass, stretched into a thin thread between the two rods, is carefully laid on the floor, or on top of pieces of wood placed on the floor. There, it cools, and it can later be broken into any desired length.