Here is the finished product that I was writing about last week. And a thoroughly more exciting picture than the earlier one of the partially constructed chandelier.

Not much more to say since I covered most of the info about it in the previous post. Anyway I’ve included a couple more photos of his work from his portfolio.

Dale Chihuly Chandelier at Columbia Museum of Art

Dale Chihuly exhibit at Kew Gardens, October 2005

Chihuly Glass Sculpture

Installing a Spectacular Chihuly Chandelier

The Columbia Museum of Arts are presently installing their new brightly coloured red, orange and yellow handblown sculptured glass chandelier. It is very typically stamped with the Chihuly trademarks of unusual and convoluted twisting glass tentacles. Whether this is really your cup of tea or not, you have to say that it produces a strong visual impact. Of course that is hardly surprising when it is 14 foot tall -  contains almost 1000 separate, vividly coloured, hand blown, glass pieces – weighs 1,600 pounds – and costs $350,000!

Chihuly chandelier at the Victoria & Albert Museum

This extraordinary creativity was no doubt borne from a series of physical and emotional traumas throughout his youth. His elder brother died during a flight training mission when Dale was 16 and his father died a year later from a heart attack. However he continued with his interior design education and graduated with a BA. The originality of his glasswork, that many will recognise as inspired by the Murano glass tradition, no doubt stems from his period of study in Venice and immersing himself in this historic glass-blowing center (Murano is a small island near to Venice).
At the age of 35, he lost the sight in his left eye and his face was severely lacerated during a head-on car collision. However he was unabated and continued with its glassblowing for another three years, until… While engaged in surfing without a surfboard, he dislocated his shoulder so severely that he was unable to hold the glass blowing pipes from then.

Again undeterred by this, he simply employed others to do his work. Strangely this turn of events allowed him to have a different, more detached and broader perspective of the works he was creating.

This seems to have been a pivotal moment for his creativity allowing for a free judgement of how designs should unfold. He describes this section of this life as being like a dancer hanging up his shoes and becoming the choreographer. His choreographing of glass sculptures and chandeliers from there on has been spectacular.
If you’re not so familiar with Dale Chihuly, you may have noticed how I’ve splattered a few other of his famous designs around the page.

Clearly influenced by Murano glass artisans