Anniversary Decorated Vase

I love the stories behind the orders and this vase commission began with a request from a man to repurpose a pair of rich, blue glass candlesticks. He had purchased these for his wife when they first started seeing each other but one had been broken at the top – as you can see in this image. He wanted me to reuse the glass from the candlesticks in some way to create a gift for his wife to present to her on their 20th wedding anniversary.

We discussed what his wife liked in terms of flowers and colours and I suggested that I could break up the candlesticks and use the broken pieces to make flower petals to decorate a new clear glass vase. His wife liked red roses, irises and white lilies, so naturally the blue glass lent itself to being reborn as blue irises.

It wasn’t an easy task as the glass was thick and curved and I had little control over how the pieces broke. However, I managed to select some nice pieces to foil and develop into petals. I added a few marbles to the design for added texture and interest, and decided to use some of the smaller pieces of broken blue glass to cut a set of 20 little heart shapes to represent the 20-year anniversary. I laid a bed of clear glass marbles inside the vase and mixed in the blue hearts.

The client was delighted with the vase and said the idea of the little blue hearts was “inspired”. His wife was thrilled with the piece. What a thoughtful and kind husband!