What makes the ordinary extraordinary? This is a question that Philadelphia based artist Amber Cowan continues to ask in her incredible sculptures made out of recycled pressed glass. Previously featured her on our blog, her delicate and exquisite works incorporate objects like candy dishes and tea cups that Cowan has salvaged from thrift stores, smashed up, and then re-fired into intricate designs and scenery. Many of these objects are vintage pieces produced by some of the best known, but now-defunct, American glass factories, making her art both a renewal and preservation of a piece of American history. Her most recent series of works arrange the glass into folkloric scenes, such as in her piece “The Lion and the Fox”, a fable that teaches about how the more often you face your fears the sooner you come to live with them in harmony. Another, titled “Garden of the Forgotten and Extinct”, portrays tiny figures of a pair of lambs, a lion, a double-humped camel, and a swan, hidden withindense layers of flowers, patterned leaves, and floral elements. Take a look at these and more of Cowan’s new works below, courtesy of the artist.
