Loren Stump

Loren Stump is a self-taught artist based in California who is taking glass blowing to the next level, making murines, rods of colored glass that are melted together in particular patterns.

The surprise, as with a geode, comes when the glass is sliced open, revealing a scene constructed out of the glass rods that is often inspired by medieval art. The murrina method of glassblowing is more than 4,000 years old and originated in the Middle East, but it’s perhaps most famous to Westerners through its Italian variations, which were developed on the island of Murano. It mostly differs from the well-known millefiori technique, which mostly deals with abstract patterns like stars and flowers, through its attempts at more sophisticated subjects.

It is not just the novelty of Stumps work that makes it so intruiging, it is the quiet beauty of each slice that reveals an amazing complexity and ability.