Summer is nearly over, but we don’t need to say goodbye completely to the beauty of nature in the months ahead. Contain yourself until spring comes again by complementing the splendor of flowers or dried arrangements with a beautiful vase. Here are a few of our favorites from new offerings in styles from silvery to surreal.
Silvery
Glass vessels are rolled at the bottoms in mercury beads to add texture and a silvery effect. Created by hot new glass artist Peter Frank of New York City, they are functional as well as decorative, and come in colors of bright green and cobalt blue as well as milky white. They cost $100 to $150 exclusively in Chicago at No Place Like, 300 W. Grand Ave., 312-822-0550.
Slinky
This “Mutant” vase designed by Giovanni Pellone with another designer in mind–you. You can mold it into whatever shape pleases you at the moment, from soft curves to dramatic waves, or even straight as a cylinder. Made of anodized aluminum and galvanized steel, for maintenance, rinse with water after use and dry with soft cloth. Mutant measures 8 inches high by 3 inches in diameter. It’s $85 at Chiasso, Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan Ave., 312-280-1249, or Oakbrook Shopping Center, Oak Brook, 630-928-1169 . Or order by phone from the Chiasso catalog (Item No. 108-0199), 800-654-3570; by fax, 616-957-2990; or online at www.chiasso.com.
Surreal
Potter Jonathan Adler’s brand new “Muse Collection” is, as he calls it, “an orgy of surrealism.” The vases in the collection are in matte white unglazed porcelain, inspired, he says by his favorite muses. At the left is the Dora Maar vase, $285, and the Gala vase with repeated lip motif, $230 at Stitch, 1723 N. Damen Ave., 773-782-1570.
