Kelly O’Dell - USA

14 x 14 x 10     I found a closed and empty mussel on the shoreline, with barnacles encrusted around its edges. A simple and beautiful artifact, theses shells inspired several stories in my mind, to explain the possible train of events that must have happened to end up like that. I had to bring it home. While teaching at Pilchuck Glass School side by side, I asked Jimmy Anderegg to gaff the mussel for me, as I am not skilled in canework, and he was excited to help with the project. Both of our classes got together to help make the labor intensive fused-powder barnacles, and we realized the piece while the model (the found shells) sat there on the marver, permanently fused together by time and calcification.