Christopher Belleau

Art Brokerage: Christopher Belleau American Glass Artist: Though he was trained as a potter, apprenticing at age 13 to a craftsman from his home town in Wisconsin, he was eventually drawn to the more ethereal, fluid and translucent qualities of glass. But what really hooked him was the opportunity glass provides to play with color. He is the only glass blower in Rhode Island that makes colored glass from the raw ingredients on a regular basis. This allows for variations of intensity of hue, tone and depth which are not available with commercial colors. Recently, he has been experimenting with irridizing hot glass. He is captivated by the rainbow flow of colors with the variations of metallic and matt surface textures. The main focus of his work for the last 20 years has been the creation and production of glass flowers. Initially, he didn't even want to make flowers. A lot of glass blowers were doing them and they all looked pretty much the same. But the challenge of rendering these natural subjects in glass soon caught his imagination and he was on fire with ideas. He is not attempting to make botanical specimens. Instead, he is making works of art inspired by nature. One of the tools he uses to make flowers he developed for another purpose, making fish fins. He now have a line of more than 30 flower forms ranging from familiar flowers and exotics to purely fanciful. The most popular flower in his line is the iris. Though he make many flowers, each one is a unique creation requiring intense concentration and often great skill to produce. In addition to flowers, he makes many different types of vases, paperweights, perfume bottles, jewelry and other sculpture. One of his favorite things to make is glass fish. He is inspired by the infinite varieties and patterns of fish in nature. Listings wanted.