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Remarkably Realistic Marine Invertebrates Made of Glass Surface at the Mystic Seaport Museum

Kate Mothes

Curated Articles

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22 Nov, 2023

This post was originally published on Colossal

All photos by Joe Michael, courtesy of the Mystic Seaport Museum, shared with permission

From the mid-1800s to the 1930s, father-and-son artist duo Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka crafted thousands of glass models of flora and fauna (previously) in exquisite, scientific detail. Sea creatures were an area of particular fascination, as delicate spines, tentacles, and frills rendered in lifelike color extend from the bodies of squid and sea anemones. And at the Mystic Seaport Museum, a major exhibition of more than 40 of the remarkable specimens come to life in Spineless: A Glass Menagerie of Blaschka Marine Invertebrates.

Spineless dives into the history of the Blaschkas’ extraordinary contributions to scientific education, starting with the elder artist’s fascination with ocean life. Leopold was inspired to recreate specimens he saw in the wild and successfully completed a commission for a nearby natural history museum in the 1850s. He realized there was a demand for lifelike versions of creatures that scientists found challenging to preserve and document, and the glass variety required no special jars or chemical treatments to keep them looking as good as new.

Leopold found his audience in universities and museums around the world, establishing a mail-order business to ship the fragile pieces to institutions where they were used for teaching or put on display. Eventually joined by his son, the two “relied on their relationships with scientists, along with observations of live specimens held in aquariums, wet specimens, books, and scientific journals,” the Mystic Seaport Museum says in a statement.

The Blaschkas are also known for their fifty-year endeavor to make 4,300 models that represent 780 plant species, comprising the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, which you can visit at Harvard Museum. Spineless continues in Mystic, Connecticut, through September 2024. Plan your visit and discover more on the museum’s website.

 

A realistic glass model of a sea creature with antennae and colorful soft spikes.

Two images side-by-side. The left image shows three glass models of sea creatures or coral with stout trucks and colorful frills on top. The right image shows a glass model of a squid.  A glass model of a sea creature with numerous tentacles.

A composite image of three realistic glass sculptures modeled after sea creatures, like coral. They are viewed from above and show symmetrical flower-like shapes.

A realistic glass model of a sea creature, showing a gray body with fin-like legs and arms.  A composite image of three realistic glass sculptures of sea creatures, all resembling slug-like shapes with long bodies and antennae.

A glass sculpture of a long, snake-like sea creature with a purple and gold body and spikes along its back.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Remarkably Realistic Marine Invertebrates Made of Glass Surface at the Mystic Seaport Museum appeared first on Colossal.

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ACCC authorises supermarket soft plastics recycling

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28 Feb, 2025

The ACCC has granted authorisation with conditions to the major supermarkets Coles Group, Woolworths Group and ALDI Stores to continue their collaboration to recycle stockpiled soft plastics and implement the pilot in-store collection program until 31 July 2026.

The ACCC first granted the supermarkets interim authorisation in November 2022, following the collapse of REDcycle, which operated a nationwide soft plastics collection and recycling program.

“Our decision today allows the supermarkets to continue working together to process the remaining REDcycle legacy stockpiles,” ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said.

“Whilst it is encouraging to see that some progress is now being made as processing capacity improves, the ACCC expects that the supermarkets will continue to prioritise stockpile remediation efforts to prevent further delays.”

The ACCC has decided to impose the same reporting conditions as the previous authorisation, requiring the major supermarkets to provide it with quarterly progress reports and minutes of each meeting of the Soft Plastics Taskforce. These reports and minutes will be published on the ACCC’s public register.

It is also a condition that all arrangements must immediately stop when the authorisation expires or is revoked.

“This is a significant issue for many consumers, so continued transparency about what progress the supermarkets are making in their processing of the soft plastic stockpiles is important,” Keogh said.

Authorisation will also allow the soft plastics instore collection pilot program to continue operating in Victoria and New South Wales and expand to other areas.

“It has been encouraging to see the pilot program expand under the current interim authorisation,” Keogh said. “Whilst we recognise that further expansion needs to be in line with available processing capacity, the ACCC expects that the supermarkets will continue with some urgency to expand these operations so that more consumers have the option of recycling their soft plastics.”

The ACCC’s authorisation is also subject to a new condition to prevent the major supermarkets from restricting recycling or logistic providers from supplying services to another customer.

The authorisation does not include authorisation for any conduct of the supermarkets and their program partners with respect to any proposed stewardship scheme.

More information about the application, including a copy of the decision, is available on the ACCC website.

Image credit: iStock.com/daizuoxin

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