- Type: Hands-on Activity
- Collection: American Art, Art Deco & Art Nouveau, contemporary-art, Mid to Late 20th-Century Art
- Culture/Region: America
- Subject Area: Visual Arts
- Grade Level: K-6
Dale Chihuly collects scraps of glass left in his glassblowing shop and melts them down to create new works of art. These varying colors and shapes form his multicolored and speckled glass. Around 100 years ago, artist Louis Comfort Tiffany created a similar process and called it confetti glass. This glass is dotted with irregular shapes and many colors and was often used to make the leaf designs in Tiffany’s windows, lamps, and other objects. Examples of confetti glass can be found in VMFA’s Lewis Decorative Arts Galleries.
When Chihuly couldn’t think of a name for his spotted artworks, he called his friend Italian artist Italo Scanga and asked what the Italian word for spot was. That’s how macchia got its name! Create your own colorful paper macchia design.
Directions
- Color in the front and back of the organic (natural) shapes with bright colors. You can create your own small shapes in your design.
- Cut along the thin dotted line on the outside of the shape.
- Cut the bold dotted straight line, stopping at the center.
- Place one side of the cut paper slightly underneath the other and secure with tape so that your form becomes three-dimensional (not flat).
- Do you think your macchia creation looks like leaves from a tree or some other form found in nature?