Dylan Martinez Purple w/ droplets Water Balloon For Sale

About this work

Dylan Martinez is an American sculptor whose glass works have attracted significant international attention for their remarkable technical virtuosity and their transformation of ephemeral, everyday subjects into permanent, luminous objects of arresting beauty. Working within the demanding traditions of hot glass sculpture, Martinez creates works that challenge conventional expectations of what glass can represent and how it can be handled. Purple w/ Droplets Water Balloon is a hot sculpted, sandblasted, and acid-etched glass sculpture from Martinez's celebrated Water Balloons series. Each work in this series captures the distended, gravity-laden form of a water-filled balloon — an object normally associated with split-second transience and explosive dissolution — rendered permanent in hand-worked glass. This particular work features a purple body adorned with droplets: water pearled on the surface of the balloon, caught in glass as if frozen in a single instant. The sculpture measures approximately 4–5 inches in length and 3–3.5 inches in height and width. The technical processes employed — hot sculpting, sandblasting, and acid etching — each contribute distinct qualities to the finished object. Hot sculpting establishes the organic, billowing form; sandblasting creates the subtle matte texture that gives the work its characteristic tactile softness; acid etching refines the surface further, enhancing the translucency and depth of the glass. The result is a sculpture of intimate scale and extraordinary material presence that exemplifies Martinez's ability to invest the commonplace with the qualities of the timeless and the wondrous.