Irish+Moors+Cylinder+with+Drawing

Date: ca. 1975
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2013/2013.72.1_1a.jpg&max=460 width="267" height="308" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=86641"]] || Title: **Irish Moors Cylinder with Drawing**

Artist: **Dale Chihuly** Born: Tacoma, Washington 1941

Medium: glass Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 7 in. (22.9 x 17.8 x 17.8 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the James F. Dicke Family © Chihuly Studio. All rights reserved.

Accession: 2013.72.1 || //Irish Moors Cylinder with Drawing// is an example of Chihuly’s //Irish Cylinders//. These pieces the artist began making on St. Patrick’s Day in 1975. Three categories of vessels by Chihuly are in his Irish style, //St. Patrick’s Day Cylinders//, //Irish Cylinders//, and //Ulysses Cylinders//. Minty and milky colors are characteristic of the Irish Cylinders. //Irish Moors Cylinder with Drawing// exhibits these colors and motifs that recall an Irish moorland scene.
 * About the Artwork: **

Native American textiles also inspire the glass-thread designs seen on his Cylinders. Chihuly arranges colorful threads into detailed designs, and then he fuses them onto the vessel during the molten stage. The technique is referred to as “pick-up drawing.” The artist continues to experiment with designs for his Cylinder pieces.

Dale Chihuly founded Pilchuck Glass School in 1971. A venue for both established artists and new students, Pilchuck is now the world’s primary education center for glass art. Chihuly studied interior design and became interested in glass while trying to incorporate glass fibers within wall hangings. He has worked with a team of glassblowers, or gaffers, since he lost the sight in one eye in a car accident in 1976. His energetic studio is charged with heat and noise. As his head gaffer explains: “We’re like an orchestra, Dale doesn’t play an instrument, but he’s the guy up front with the baton.”
 * Luce Center Biography: **

Sources: Chihuly, Dale. “On the Road” in //Chihuly: Color, Glass, and Form// (New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1986), 18-20.

Chihuly, Dale. //Objets de Verre// (Paris: Palais du Louvre, 1986).

Monroe, Michael W. “Drawing the Third Dimension” in //Chihuly: Color, Glass, and Form// (New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1986), 34-36.


 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page Dale Chihuly’s website
 * Links: **