The William Traver Gallery is celebrating nature in its two newest exhibits by glass artists Jay MacDonell and Masami Koda.

MacDonell’s exhibit, titled “A Space Between,” celebrates the gracefulness of nature through vibrantly colored blown glass. Each piece is made of two solid-colored parts that are striated with various colors. The two parts are not related in color, but are unified by a solid-colored connector piece, which matches to a color that stripes both parts.

Although the pieces are made separately, they are put together while still hot, creating a uniform flow that lends fluidity to the work.

MacDonell’s work is a whimsical and surreal depiction of plant life that is both humorous and alive. He said his pieces are based on bulbs found in spring. They represent the potential for beauty and growth found in these bulbs.

MacDonell, a native of British Columbia, has been blowing glass since 1992. He attended Pilchuck Glass School and was a guest artist at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma in 2006. This is his fifth solo show.

Koda’s exhibit, titled “Shizuku,” also explores nature but in a very different way. While MacDonell’s work displays the potential for growth and beauty in nature by using exaggerated forms, Koda focuses on nature’s smallest beauties - the details - by creating realistic and intricate figures. Koda uses metals along with glass to create her images.

In her “Red Dew” and “Peppermint Dew” series, Koda utilizes bronze to make the branches of a plant. The leaves are made of green and brown, translucent cast glass. She then uses small silver discs and lamp-worked glass to create the image of dew on a leaf.

Another of Koda’s pieces, “Spring Blow,” uses curled copper strips as a backdrop. Cradled in each copper strip is a loosely spun copper wire nest that holds small, pink glass balls. The piece resembles cherry blossoms.

Koda’s sparing use of colored glass makes her pieces more dramatic and vivid, and conveys the simple yet stunning beauty of nature’s intricacies. She is quiet about the meaning behind her work, saying she prefers the viewer make his or her own interpretation.

Koda was born in Kobe, Japan. She attended the Osaka University of Arts. Art schools in Japan are structured in such a way that students can study only one material, making it impossible for Koda to mix materials in her artwork. It was not until she graduated and came to the United States that she was allowed to begin experimentation with other media in her glass art.

She began exploring nature while studying at New York State College of Ceramics, which she said was very isolated, but surrounded by great nature. She then began exploring the relationship between humans and nature.