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New app: Blow glass like Dale Chihuly

BY Stephanie Klein  on December 7, 2012 @ 3:47 pm (Updated: 9:16 pm - 12/9/12 )

Much like overpriced coffee, Seattle is also known around the world as the hometown for glass blower Dale Chihuly.

The world renowned artist has classes and his museum holds demonstrations, but it's nothing like having a hotshop at your house. But now there is new technology to get you started.

If you have an iPhone, you can get a free app that lets you simulate glass blowing in the palm of your hand and crate Chihuly-inspired art.

Select one of three shapes (Fiori, Macchia and Seaforms), blow into your phone to create the molten glass form, mold it, bend it, and then choose layers of color. You can add more shapes to build an installation worthy of hanging from the ceiling of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.

After you complete your genius work, you can share it and look at what other budding phone artists have created.

"Chihuly has done for glass art what Faberge did for decorative art - push the boundaries of a medium beyond what people thought possible," Joe Alexander, chief creative officer of The Martin Agency, said in a news release. "We thought mobile technology was a perfect way to bring his achievement to life for people outside the museum's traditional audience."

If this is just the beginning to your new-found glass love, check out the Chihuly exhibit in Seattle or the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com Editor
Stephanie joined the MyNorthwest.com team in February 2008. She has built the site into a two-time National Edward R. Murrow Award winner (Best Radio Website 2010, 2012).
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Comments (4)


  • Add A Comment

  • hedujg26 wrote...
    Considering...
    December 9, 2012 1:45 pm
    That Chihuly doesn't make his own art, makes this the most worthless app ever created.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • JMGilday wrote...
    so
    December 9, 2012 9:11 pm
    by your (idiotic) reasoning, James Cameron isn't responsible for Avatar or Titanic since other people filmed them and he only directed the movies.

    Look up the term gaffer sometime...

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • adiru wrote...
    Oh goodie!
    December 9, 2012 4:11 pm
    More "glass art" that all looks the same. Does anybody have a BB gun?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    Political leaders should be good at this.
    December 10, 2012 3:16 am
    Most have so much hot air, they wont need to heat the glass. Seattle Mayor is a shoe in here. The apology from Bellevue's finest, should create a fine piece of art.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }