Featured Foto Friday - Looks Like Blown Glass to Me

This beautiful chandelier is found on board the Disney Wonder, in the central Atrium.  It was handcrafted by famed blown glass artist, Dale Chihuly.  The entire chandelier hangs down about 10 feet from the ceiling mount and fills the central Atrium with lively color. The design and overall feel of this artistic creation are reminiscent of coral under the sea, which is quite fitting having a statue of Ariel, the Little Mermaid below welcoming guests to Triton's one of the three main dining rooms onboard. 

The piece, however, is not actually glass, but rather made out of acrylic. Due to the ship's near-constant movement, and the  4-level atrium's ceiling height, as a safety precaution, as part of Mr. Chihuly's commission, Disney Cruise Line and Mr. Chihuly made the decision that acrylic would be a safer option should any individual "glass piece" break free and fall to the floor many feet below.  

When designing and creating the piece itself, in order to get an accurate feel for how the chandelier would ultimately look and feel hanging inside the central Atrium, Mr. Chihuly had a mock-up of the Atrium built in his studio to get it "just right" before turning it over to the Disney team for installation on the actual ship.