Kaj Beck is famous for his distinct and colorful murrine (pronounced mur-ee-nee) work. This technique, perfected by Italian artists in the 16th century, involves stretching colored glass into long, thin rods, which are then stacked into shapes or layers and reheated into a solid piece that can be stretched again. When finally cooled and sliced, these rods are often cut to reveal the pattern or image in the cross-section.
Beck’s pieces highlight a technique called veiled cane, where color is layered with sections of black or white. Instantly recognizable, his creations have names like “Tesseract Cells” and “Unicorn Marbles.” His murrine patterns look like bubbles blown with a straw through technicolor milk, while individual chips evoke pieces of coral from an alien planet. When asked about this style, Beck said he simply calls it veiled cane murrine. He first learned the murrine technique from Mike Warren 20 years ago, and it instantly called to him.
Now living in Humboldt County with his wife and dog, Beck started blowing glass in a school bus in Orrick in the late ’90s. “Back then, there were about six of us cranking out secret word pipes all day,” he said. “As an artist, I’m more into pattern work than functional stuff.” But it wasn’t until after a tragic accident that he discovered the look he’s famous for today.
Around 2009, glassblowing became more of a part-time thing as he dove deep into the world of skydiving and parachuting, with the rush beginning to replace a lot of the emotional fulfillment he got from making glass art. In 2012, Beck collided with a rock face and was stranded for four hours, waiting for search and rescue. He was eventually airlifted to Stanford to reattach his foot, which had been sheared off. Throughout recovery, Beck said he really started to focus on what was important.
After the accident, Beck returned to glassblowing, adjusting to his physical limitations. The return to the torch brought a whole new wave of creativity. Two years later, he started the type of work he’s known for today. He said his desire for direct connection has shaped how he approaches commissions and even collaborations, often at the cost of time.
Beck said his work takes a massive amount of hours. “It’s kind of maniacal,” he admitted. His most recent “Tesseract Cell” (a six-sided cube) took an estimated 45 days to create the different canes, harvest a single cell from each, and fuse each side together. Along with time, there’s also a bit of luck involved in his work. His “Unicorn Marbles” are an example of this. At the end of a cane pull, he takes the thick section, breaks it off, and uses it to create a one-of-a-kind marble. Recently, he’s started doing live cane pulling on Instagram and auctioning the marbles that make it off right there on the spot. Though, he says part of the fun is that not all of them make it through the process.
Speaking with Beck, it’s clear that despite his difficult accident, he’s been able to channel the energy he put into skydiving into his passion for glassblowing. “Glass gives us the opportunity to continually evolve,” he said. “It connects us to the moment, pushing ourselves to solve a problem or prove you can do something. Those are some of the purest moments of life and a lot like skydiving.”
