This project is an exploration into how chance influences the design process. Instead of carefully composing the pattern for each bowl, we developed a system for randomly selecting and applying colored shards and thin glass strings to the outer layer of the molten glass. It’s a perfect balance between engineering and Japanese Wabi-Sabi. We embrace the random elements of the glassblowing process and use color to amplify the effects of its unruly viscosity and flow. As the colors melt into the liquefied body of the glass, they warp and twist to give every piece its own unexpected and unique composition. We want each vessel to feel intimate, not mass-produced.

To ensure that each vessel comes out with a unique composition that also looks good requires a recipe that is extremely specific in some ways, but loose in others. To make each glass, the glassblower must pull color pieces from 3 of a possible 10 bins, assigned by a random number generator. For example: (9,2,3). The set of 3 color numbers also serves as an identifying code to determine how your piece fits into the family of possible outcomes. (See the instruction book below)