Hand signed and marked on the bottom "PP02"
Portland Press Editions.
Height: 6 1/2"
Diameter: 8"
Comes with a plexiglass display case, a book on Chihuly, & cleaning solution.
Condition: Very good no chips or cracks.

About the series:

Dale Chihuly’s “Basket” series is one of his earliest and most influential bodies of work, marking a pivotal moment in his career. Inspired by the Native American woven baskets he encountered during a visit to the Washington State History Museum in the 1970s, Chihuly sought to replicate the natural, organic forms of these baskets in glass.

The baskets that inspired him were often weathered and deformed over time, their shapes collapsing under their own weight, creating soft, asymmetrical forms. Chihuly translated these qualities into glass by pushing the boundaries of traditional glassblowing techniques. Rather than creating rigid, symmetrical shapes, Chihuly’s Baskets are known for their fluid, irregular, and often collapsed forms that mimic the soft, slumped structures of the original baskets.

The process involved blowing thin, flexible glass, allowing the molten material to naturally droop and fold, which gave each piece its unique, organic shape. Chihuly would often blow a series of nested pieces—smaller Baskets placed inside larger ones—to enhance the idea of layering and depth, and to reference the Native American tradition of basket stacking.

The use of subdued, earth-toned colors in many of the pieces reflects the natural materials of the original baskets, though some also feature bold colors, enhancing the play of light through the thin, translucent glass. The "Basket" series was groundbreaking in that it broke from the traditional expectations of glass art, introducing a more fluid, spontaneous, and organic approach to form.

Chihuly's Baskets not only pay homage to Native American art but also revolutionized his own approach to glass, emphasizing the beauty of imperfection and the natural flow of molten glass, which would become a hallmark of his later work.