Macchia

Straw Macchia with Aqua Lip Wrap, 2015, 19 x 31 x 30" Inquire

Kaleidoscopic color

Inspired to use all 300 colors in his hotshop, Chihuly explores unexpected color combinations with the Macchia series. Chihuly adds brightly colored spots (Macchia is Italian for spot) for a speckled effect, and pushes the possibilities of scale to create pieces up to four feet in diameter.

Lime Macchia with Aqua Lip Wrap, 2012 by Dale Chihuly

Lime Macchia with Aqua Lip Wrap, 2012, 18 x 29 x 28"
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Deep Plum Macchia with Citronelle Lip Wrap, 2007, Dale Chihuly

Deep Plum Macchia with Citronelle Lip Wrap, 2007, 22 x 40 x 34"
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Sunset Macchia with Brilliant Yellow Lip Wrap, 2015, Dale Chihuly

Sunset Macchia with Brilliant Yellow Lip Wrap, 2015, 18 x 32 x 30"
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Harvest Orange Macchia with Field Green Lip Wrap, 2019, Dale Chihuly

Harvest Orange Macchia with Field Green Lip Wrap, 2019, 18 x 30 x 27"
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Scarlet Macchia with Evergreen Lip Wrap, 2019, Dale Chihuly

Scarlet Macchia with Evergreen Lip Wrap, 2019, 16 x 31 x 32"
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SEE THE PROCESS

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Color rods, The Boathouse hotshop, Seattle, 2010

A never-ending color palette

Chihuly’s hotshop includes glass rods in hundreds of colors, allowing him to explore endless, wildly contrasting color combinations. While creating Macchia, Chihuly developed an approach that allows him to keep the inside and outside colors from melding—the creation of a white interior layer he calls “clouds.”

Macchia in process, The Hotshop, The Boathouse, Seattle, 2006

Creating spots of color

A signature element of Chihuly’s Macchia is the fusing of colored glass chips (called jimmies or frit) onto the exterior layer to create a spotted, speckled effect. This gives Chihuly an opportunity to incorporate even more color into his pieces.

Classic Blue Macchia, 1982, Dale Chihuly

Classic Blue Macchia, 1982, 8 x 10 x 8"
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Early Macchia Trio, 2016
Blown glass, 1982; composed 2016
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“I put one color on the inside, then sort of a translucent or opaque white in the middle, and then another color on the outside. I loved the…ones that seemed to make the least amount of sense, like the really crazy ones—purple and chartreuse.”

–Chihuly

View our Macchia Lookbook

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