Jeanne Menafo

A thousand centuries from now, a scientist unearths a strange object that appears to be the fossilized remains of a prehistoric creature.

JeanneOne of Jeanne's trilobite-inspired pieces. “In my process I don't try to recreate the exact species,” she says of her work. “Instead, I make what I see in my mind's eye, and what I hope are interesting pieces.”Or, it might be a surviving piece from Jeanne’s 21^st century portfolio of glasswork. One of her favorite subjects, after all, is the trilobite.

“Fossils, intricate patterns in microorganisms,” she says of the things that inspire her art. “There is something very compelling and symbolic to me about organisms embedded in rock.”

This Pittsford, NY, resident first discovered glassblowing in a summer class at RIT.

“I fell in love with glass and I’ve been studying and working in glass for 13 years,” she says.

Since 2000, Jeanne has been teaming up with Brett Pierce—a veteran flameworker and glassblower from Nunda, NY—to create offbeat glass jewelry and sculpture. Including pieces reminiscent of now-extinct creatures. They call their partnership Cave Glass.

“I think trilobites are amazing,” Jeanne says. “They varied greatly in their size and form.”

Cut glass. Face-melting heat. Some might consider the tools of the pursuit fraught with peril. But in the hands of the artist, it’s a delicate choreography. And her work has a lighter side, she says, in her jewelry designs.

“Since I rarely use color in my sculpture, it gives me a change to be playful with color and design,” she says of the beads she crafts with Brett.

A Kandinsky-inspired blown glass bead necklace.How’s it work, exactly?

“We begin by designing and creating our own murrine cane,” Jeanne says, referring to a narrow rod of glass filled with patterns that reveal themselves when the cane is cut crosswise into chips.

Jeanne and Brett cut the chips, arrange them in a pattern, and fuse them together. Once cooled and sanded, the fused plate is reheated and encased in clear glass. And finally, the plate is blown and shaped into a hollow bead or pendant—each one unique.

“I never use molds and each glass piece is one of a kind,” she says. “I enjoy the challenge of working with a material that seems to have its own attitude.”

And the attitude just might be moving into a new period. Jeanne is now in the midst of developing a series of cocoon and pod sculptures. Bye bye, trilobites?

Hey. Art evolves, too.

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Jeanne and Brett’s work will be on sale at a bead bazaar from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 31 during the 2010 International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB) Gathering at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center in Rochester, NY. The meeting is for members, but the bazaar is open to the public. Click here for details.

See more: Jeanne and Brett on Etsy, and at glassartists.org

Say hi: caveglass@yahoo.com