This work was created in the mosaic technique by placing a number of small slices of glass canes next to one another to form a circle; fusing them into a disk at a high temperature; and finally slumping the disk over a curved, bowl-shaped mold. Each slice, cut from a long cane created by wrapping glass of different colors around a core, bears the pattern of a central red eye encircled in black and five red petals set against a yellow ground; the outer ring is of alternating yellow and green sections. During fusion the sliced canes became partially misshapen, creating a whimsical composition in which colors often run into one another—with brilliant translucent emerald green coming to life through transmitted light.

Mosaic glass is also known as millefiori ("thousand flowers") after its Venetian "reincarnation." The technique first appeared in Egypt about 1400 B.C.; then again in Rome and Alexandria during the second century B.C.; in Islamic Mesopotamia and Syria during the ninth century A.D.; and in Venice during the fifteenth century. Probably the longest and most successful period followed its reappearance during the first half of the nineteenth century in Venice, whence it spread throughout Europe, especially to France and to Bohemia, where the technique enjoys its greatest popularity today.