I had the opportunity this weekend to take a workshop with Dan Mirer, who works out of the Corning Glass workshop in Corning, NY. While Dan has been blowing glass for a long time, he is now fairly widely know for his work with the Swedish overlay technique to capture very well-defined patterns of bubbles in pieces (as in the following image).
Besides being a talented glass blower and teacher, Dan is a great guy to work with. He has an almost boundless willingness to share his techniques and expertise, and he is a patient teacher.
Without getting into the technical aspects of the Swedish overlay, I like this technique because it is a useful way both to get a workable color to the outside of a vessel form and to capture bubbles as decorative elements in very precise patterns on a piece.
The photo above clearly shows the intricate bubble pattern on this side of the bowl Dan is making.