Stratum
Layers of colour, read as rock in cross-section
This iconic and ever-popular design is unique to Isle of Wight Studio Glass, and requires a team of at least two glassmakers. The method is complex, but in outline, a multicoloured striped layer of glass is fashioned and then pushed over the surface of a core of shaped clear glass, furnishing the effect of the strata seen in sedimentary rocks.
What Happens In The Making
As the piece is blown and grown, those stripes stretch and drift, thinning where the form widens and gathering where it narrows. That movement gives Stratum its geology, and is the reason no two pieces band alike.
Launched in June 2014, shortly after glassmaking began at Arreton, and in continuous production since. All pieces are handmade and hand finished.
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Forms
Cylinder vases, bag vases, oval bag vases, onion vases, bowls, perfume bottles with flat base, and flattened pebble paperweights.
Available in gloss and matt finishes, in more than one size.
Stratum Glass in the Home
A single tall cylinder holds a windowsill or a mantelpiece on its own, as the bands shift with the light behind it. Three pieces of one colourway at differing heights read as a collection.
Wash by hand in luke warm water with a little washing-up liquid and dry with a soft cloth. Stratum should not go in the dishwasher.
Collecting Stratum
Because the design occupies at least two glassmakers and a considerable amount of studio time, output is limited, and pieces in colourways no longer in production are already sought after by collectors.
Find out more about collecting Isle of Wight Studio Glassware.
