In this version of Athena we used an ancient feathering technique to create multiple images of tropical leaves within the vase wall.

Colored threads of molten glass are wrapped around the circumference of a glass bubble before reheating and dragging steel blades across the surface.

This produces a soft, feathery detail in different shades of leaf patterns within the glass.

Leaves of the tropics, especially banana leaves, are not only beautiful, they’ve had an enormous influence on tropical culture.

They are used for cooking, as disposable tableware, for food storage, in religious ceremonies and were the primary writing surface of South and Southeast Asia.

The rounded letters of many scripts in southern India, Burma, and Java, intentionally avoided sharp angles and straight lines that might split the leaf.

This was so influential that rongo rongo on Easter Island, used fluted wood tablets to imitate the surface of banana leaves.