Helene Boyer's previous career was in education, but she had always loved the medium and material of glass art.

"It's a unique thing. It's solid and then it can be melted and become like honey when it's hot. Then it can become solid again," she said.

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The artist started playing with glass about 15 years ago. Her husband had bought her a kiln, but it stayed unused for years before Boyer took a school holiday class about glass.

"I went there, sat down at the torch, and was just hooked," she said.

"I work in flameworked glass. Sometimes I mix together kiln-fired glass and flameworked glass, but mainly I like working over the torch."

Boyer is particularly fascinated with the way the glass captures the light, and enjoys colouring the glass with special paint.

Her work focuses on celebrating the small things in our environment like marine creatures, fungi, flowers, and other ecosystems that are important, but humans are destroying.

"The reason that I am in the exhibition in America is some American artists decided they would like to celebrate botanical sculpture," she said.

"The exhibition is called The Glass Lifeforms and is about the best biological models [and sculptures]."

The exhibition was inspired by Harvard University's collection of plant and invertebrate models for scientific study produced by Czech glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.

Boyer could not believe it when she was told she would be in the exhibition as she would be placed beside some of her heroes and heroines she has always admired in art.

However, the pressure then became about which work would make it to America without breaking during the travels, which Boyer selected carefully and then padded well.

Recyclers depicts four varieties of Tasmanian fungi and a slime mould growing on the bark strewn forest floor.

The exhibition will run until April 2022 and features 53 contemporary artworks in glass chosen from 123 entries from 14 countries.

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The criteria of selection was based on accuracy in representing the organism, aesthetic beauty, presentation, and originality.

With the American exhibit under her belt, as well as a current exhibit in Hobart and another piece in an emerging artists exhibit, Boyer said she was going to take a breather to work out what she would do next.

Boyer said her message to aspiring glass artists would be to be prepared for lots of breakages, but not to waste anything.

To view The Glass Lifeforms exhibition visit glasslifeform.org.

You can view more of Boyer's work on Instagram or at the Russell St Studios, Inveresk.

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