INSPIRED BY DALE CHIHULY

I wonder how many of you have seen the beautiful work of Dale Chihuly, and in particular his amazing installations last year at Kew Gardens?  I was particularly taken by his waterlily flowers, which were not really waterlillies at all...waterlillies have LOADS of petals, but he had blown the glass into simple abstract shapes, and fixed them to stalks and put lots of them into the pond hovering over the waterlily pads,  They were stunningly gorgeous to me.

I do not blow glass, and could never hope to produce anything so breathtaking, but I decided just to try a few pieces to go in or around my pond which has a big waterlily in it.  These are some of the results of my experiments, which are on-going.  It is really lovely to find inspiration from other great artists, without producing copies - copying demonstrates very little in the way of creativity.  There is always an ongoing debate on the Facebook glass forums, with some glass artists often becoming very upset when they feel someone has directly copied them, and others producing tutorials which actively encourage direct copying.  I often draw INSPIRATION from other artists, as artists have done always, but I do try to create pieces that show my own "voice" in the making.

Here are my "flowers", which are not really flowers at all, there are no petals....but they do brighten up the garden! I aimed for delicate, semi-transparent, and organic.     I may try next with petals.