Bea DyBuncio ’13 won a silver medal for her glass sculpture at the National Scholastic Art and Writing Competition in April.

The piece, entitled “Ice,” first won a gold key at the Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, which automatically placed her in the running for the national competition, DyBuncio said.

“This was actually the first piece I made this year,” she said, “I was inspired by these big pâte de verre pieces I found online.”

Pâte de verre is a form of kiln casting.  In it, finely crushed glass is mixed with binding material and colorants.  This paste is then used to coat the inside of a mould.

To construct the piece, DyBuncio took the paste and sprinkled a thin layer onto a kiln shelf to put in the kiln, she said.

She then took a metal cone shape, placed the sheet of glass over the cone and put it into the kiln so that the glass folded over the cone, which resulted in a vase-like shape.

The white sculpture’s shape falls somewhere between being a bowl and being a flower.

“When I was in elementary school my sister was at Harvard-Westlake and took glass with Mr. Luebtow,” she said. “I remember her coming home and bringing boxes filled with these glass pieces… I told myself that when I had the chance to take this class, I would.”

DyBuncio plans to try glass blowing when she attends New York University next fall.

“You can make really clean and crisp pieces [through glass blowing],” she said.