Dale Chihuly's Fiori di Como

Since it's a wet, cold and very rainy day in Los Angeles, we wanted to share some bright and colorful design featuring favorite rainy day object - the umbrella - and Dale Chihuly's Fiori di Como.

This impressive and pretty art installation lives inside the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Composed of over 2,000 glass umbrellas, spanning across 2,000 square feet of the lobby ceiling and holding 10 feet deep on a steel structure, the 10 year old installation still garners acclaim and attraction. Over 100 artists brought this inspiration to life - glassblowers, architects, engineers, artists - all in an effort to create the scale and design of the project. Overall, color was the real inspiration and as Chihuly states in a 1998 interview "Color is one of the great properties of glass and is more intense in glass than any other material." Consider glass in your own home. Look around and see how your own glass decor works with light in your home. Does it add unique color and style?

Check out more rainy day inspiration from Apartment Therapy:

(Image one by Flickr's dbking/creative commons and image two by Flickr's djwudi/creative commons.)

Comments (18)

When I saw this in Vegas I thought it was a shame how this installation gets lost in the general glitter that is Vegas. I found it hard to appreciate the beauty what with the whirring and the lights and the musics and the crowds. Its surrounded by so much fakery, it somehow is hard to believe in. Right past there is the crazy Willy Wonka garden with the trees with faces and the upside down water flows.

But I saw a variant of this with Chihuly retrospective where they placed his bowls upside down on a glass ceiling and it was stunning. I can only imagine the real impact of this work in a quiet space.

I have lived in Vegas for almost five years, and I've seen this countless times. At first I didn't even know who Chihuly was until I saw the exhibit at the De Young in San Francisco. I went back to see it at the Bellagio with a new found appreciation of the work and beauty put into this. I think there might be one or two more Chihuly's around the Bellagio that I have seen, maybe even more. Whats nice is that across from this lobby, the Bellagio always has this rotating exhibit of nature and other weird stuff thats always cool to look at. One of the few things a local is willing to go on the strip for.

It's fiori (flowers) not firoi. Flowers of Como. I totally want a Chihuly ceiling in the museum where I work. If only someone would drop a couple of hundred grand in my lap....

Ohh -- I lived in Tacoma when they were building the Museum of Glass and the Chihuly glass bridge. The whole city is filled with his installations, it gave me such an appreciation for beautiful glass. He went to my high school and donated a piece for display in the library -- gorgeous.

I think he's had a huge impact on that city in general, every high school in the city had a different glass art specialty. One taught glass blowing, one did mosaics, and my school produced stained glass windows.

He did a gorgeous exhibition at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix:

http://www.chihuly.com/installations/DesertBotanicalGarden/DesertBotanicalGarden005.html

His stuff fit in oddly well and was really set off by the weirdly-shaped cacti and their soft, faded colors.

This is so memorable and gorgeous. I still remember the first time I encountered it.

I always liked his installation at the Dallas Museum of Art. It was fun to sit in the museum cafe and watch the sun shine thru the glass.

http://www.chihuly.com/installations/dallasmuseum/Art/Img0055B.html

"Composed of over 2,000 glass umbrellas"

Flowers, not Umbrellas...

chihuly often works at such a large scale that is unusual for glass artists. it's really amazing how his work affects a space. glorious. and they said modernism was cold. hah.

@ patrick (the other one) Do you have a link where I could see his indoor pool? I would love to know what he did.

Now it just reminds me of Jerri Blank from Top Chef!

I saw his work on exhibit in San Francisco and while flowers and blown glass are not usually my thing, his stuff is mind blowing. Seriously amazing. A true artist. And it's not that he's just good at glass blowing -- he's good at conceptualizing huge installations of blown glass. To all AT dwellers -- if you ever get a chance -- see his work -- he's one of the greats of the 21st century and will be in art and architecture books for generations to come.

We saw the Chihuly Over Venice exhibition when it opened in Kansas City and made a point of seeing the Bellagio installation in 1999. His work really is stunning.

We have several hand blown glass pieces in our home. Nothing on the scale like Chihuly, but pieces that my husband and other local glass blowers have made. They're simple pieces, but they make me happy.

I have long admired Chihuly's amazing work, particularly his outdoor installations, which he has done all over the world. I think this particular work is his large-scale interpretation of the Italian millefiore glass making process. It must be lovely to view underneath, but it makes me nervous to think about all of that glass overhead.

Jacasi, Chihuly has 100 people in his employ, including engineers and riggers. His people are absolutely expert at safety and installation. You can feel safe under that ceiling. However, I don't think you'd want one in an earthquake zone.

I tend not to swim, almost ever. But if I had access to that pool I would probably have to literally be kicked out of it.