Mary Ann Toots Zynsky graduated with a bachelor in fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1973, studying under Dale Chihuly and alongside fellow glass pioneers Dan Dailey and Therman Statom. She was a key participant in the founding of the Pilchuck Glass School (1971) and the New York Experimental Glass Workshop (now UrbanGlass).
It was not until 1982 that Zynsky developed her signature filet de verre technique. Initially Zynsky made her glass threads in the traditional Venetian manner—“I had two teams of people pulling thread all afternoon for me,” she recalled. But soon an acquaintance, Mathijs Teunissen Van Manen, helped her build a machine for pulling glass thread, similar to the process of making glass optical fiber. A three week trip to Europe turned into 16 years, and Zynsky established a studio in Amsterdam where she continued to refine her technique. Her process involves “painting” with thousands of multicolored glass threads by layering them on a heat-resistant plate. The threads are then fused and slumped in the kiln, and finally, wearing heat-resistant gloves, she reaches into the kiln and shapes each piece into its final, undulating form.