by Melissa Ayotte

Photography by John W. Hession, Morgan Karanasios, and Melissa Ayotte

Melissa Ayotte creates her artwork through a transformation that uses fire to change glass from solid to fluid states. This means that as a flameworker, her art exists on the edge of bending and shaping what is a supercooled solid into a malleable liquid. That realization helps the artist arise with a purpose tied to fire that leads to the creation of beautiful, realistic flowers encased in glass.