Lotton Glass Multi-Flora Study

In the Lotton book, a chapter is devoted to the actual nuts and bolts of what goes into making a multi-flora vase.  This is quite interesting, and if one is unable to actually visit the studio and watch Charles make a piece of Multi-Flora glass, reading the chapter in the book should help one realize the amount of work, time, and patience it takes to make a piece successfully.  The focus of this portion of the website is not so much on the “how” it’s done, but more on different end results of the difficult labor of love that goes into the creation of a piece.  Through photographs and text, we will attempt to illustrate different examples of the multi-flora glass that Charles is famous for.   This is an example of an earlier multi-flora piece by Charles.  Notice the simpler flower design on this 1978 piece.
Here’s a wonderful example of a Charles Lotton Double multi-flora bowl.  This bowl stands 9” tall and measures 11” wide, and features a rolled lip and is cased in aventurine green, which makes a great backdrop for the multi-flora design.  Charles created this masterpiece in 1996.  If making a piece of  Multi-Flora glass is difficult and labor-intensive, then making a DOUBLE multi-flora piece is exponentially more difficult and demanding, as there are two layers of multi-flora glass to work with and be concerned about.  The difference in appearance between a multi-flora piece and a double multi-flora piece is that the double multi-flora piece will have incredible depth, as if you are looking into a garden of flowers.  One club member has told us that Charles only creates about 4 double multi-flora pieces a year, because of the difficulty in making them.  This fantastic piece resides in the collection of Warner and Kristina Smith.
Multi-Flora Page 1 - Multi-Flora Page 2 - Multi-Flora Page 3 - Multi-Flora Page 4 Multi-Flora Page 5 - Multi-Flora Page 6