Glass Hurricane

Glass shades were originally used to protect candle flames from drafts, keeping the light steady and soft. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, these tall, blown-glass forms were known as candle shades, or sometimes India shades, and later became known as hurricane shades. Ours takes its shape from an early nineteenth-century example in The Met’s collection, leaving the glass clear and undecorated. We added a fitted glass base with a built-in taper holder, turning the traditional shade into a complete candleholder. When making the base, an extra gather of glass is added to the piece after it's blown out. The gather is then pushed with a graphite rod to create the well that the candle sits in.  Each hurricane is mouth-blown in small batches by Asher Holman at his shop in Asheville, North Carolina, using silica sourced from Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Because each piece is formed by hand, subtle variations in shape, along with small bubbles and ripples in the glass, are natural traces of the making process.  Please note that the taper candle is not included.