Planted glass art

As I walk the hallways in the university I occasionally come across piles of old lab equipment with notes encouraging people to take items before they're thrown away.  It's hard to see really neat pieces of glass go to waste.  I've slowly been collecting some of these neat pieces with the intent to try to create some sort of art with them, involving plants.

"Ampules of Evolution"

 This piece of driftwood was a left-over from the 'Micro Mega Terrarium' build.  I liked it so much that it's been sitting against the wall, at the foot of my bed.  Yesterday when sweeping the floor I noticed how well it sat flat in this position against the wall.

 The glass vials I got when we moved a lab and created a shared lab space for shared lab equipment.  They held dried chlorophyll samples that were caked on.  I cleaned them the best I could using a wire brush.  The idea of the contents that they held inspired this piece.

 The first ampule contains some filamentous algae that has been plaguing an aquatic fern in my fish tank.  In this format the beauty of the algae stands out, rather than being a nuisance.

(Forgive the bubbles in these two shots, I needed the ambient light before the sun set)

The next glass piece has some aquatic plants, Cryptocoryne parva, also from my planted aquarium that I snatched out.

 The last ampule has some primitive land plants, a species of moss and some Selaginella from the 'Mega Terrarium'.




"Moss on a log"


Sometimes two things just go together.  This piece of driftwood I collected from what must have been the hottest day of late last summer.  It was something that I never intended to use in a terrarium but it was just too nice to not bring home for some purpose.  I thought about using it around the vegetable garden, that never materialized yet, but it's sat next to my shed for months.

 When I was digging through the glass vials to do a quick inventory of what I had in the shed I saw this large glass, rounded bottomed one.  It has a beautiful cork stopper that fits like a glove.  As soon as I pulled it out I thought of the driftwood piece propped next to the shed.  As luck would have it, these two pieces were made for each other.

 The wood is around 4' long and arcs elegantly, allowing you to put it in several different angles while still holding the glass.

 The moss I have been growing outside since the weather warmed.  It branches out nicely and looks great with the slight magnification provided by the rounded glass.

Those feet are size 13.  They should give you an idea of the size.


Both these pieces are available for sale.  Contact me for details.