COURTESY RICK STRINI
Rick Stini's design for the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" finale consisted of flat panels, a contrast to the more ornate piece used in the season opener.
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Maui artist might be ‘Makeover’ fixture
If Michael Moloney of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" has his way, you'll be seeing more work by Maui glass blower Rick Strini on the ABC show. He's already invited Strini for a future episode, and they are dreaming up ideas.
"I want to build a chandelier out of recycled glass and metal," said Moloney.
COURTESY RICK STRINI
A detail is shown.
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For Sunday's season finale, Strini enlisted a blacksmith to help create a chandelier for the new Noah's Ark Missionary Baptist Church in downtown New Orleans. The congregation had been renting space down the street since their church was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
The style of the chandelier harks back to Strini's fascination with flat glass, or sheet glass, primarily used in windows and door panels. He usually works with blown glass.
"It's turn of the century," Strini said of the light he created through his stained-glass inserts, "but it's a very contemporary take."
Individual pieces were cut from larger sheets of glass; the artist's original design called for a rectangular chandelier. But in taking the octagonal shape of the new church into consideration, Strini and Moloney came up with the chandelier that Moloney compared to an "upside-down wedding cake."
Moloney and Strini formed a fast friendship while working together on last fall's season premiere of "Extreme Makeover," which involved a Kalihi Valley rebuilding project. Strini created a chandelier for the home that Moloney described as "organic and like a sea animal" -- very different from his latest piece.
"It's big and grand, but subtle in a way," he said of the new church's chandelier. "It looks right -- the style, the size and the color."
Strini Art Glass is based in Paia, Maui; 572-6283. Rick Strini's work can be found at Dolphin Galleries in the Hilton Hawaiian Village. For other distributors visit www.striniartglass.com.