Breaking into the art market: Dale Chihuly sculptures

American-born Dale Chihuly is a glass sculptor and artist widely credited for reinventing the perception of the glass as a fine art medium.

His ambitious architectural installations, featured in museums, cities and parks around the world, can reach as high a price as their height. In 2006, his 43ft-tall "Fireworks of Glass" sculpture was sold for $4.5 million.

"I was just lucky. A lot of people wanted to own my work and I was happy to make it for them. I can't even explain it myself, how it all happened," Chihuly told CNBC

His pieces can be as high as 60 feet, with pieces anywhere from two feet.

"What I learnt a long time ago, is to let the glass make itself. Use the fire and the heat, the centrifugal force and gravity. There are very few tools that I use."

CNBC caught up with Dale Chihuly in London, watch the full interview here.

Here are some of his most celebrated pieces.

By CNBC's Alice Tidey.

Chihuly's "Sunset Boat" was displayed in the 2006 edition of Sotheby's "Beyond Limits" exhibit in Chatsworth House's 105-acre gardens in northern UK..

The piece was the result of a decade of experimentation, as Chihuly first started filling boats with glass in 1995.

Displayed in the lobby of the world-famous Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Chihuly's "Fiori di Como" art piece is comprised of 2,000 hand-blowns glass blossoms.

Measuring 70 feet by 30 feet by 12 feet, the installation is the largest glass sculpture ever and required 100 people to work on it for two years.

London's Halcyon Gallery unveiled this piece in Park Lane, London on January 26, 2012 as part of the artist's international public art program.

The sculpture, exhibited to mark London's Olympic year, is composed of 435 organically-shaped elements from elaborate curls to cones and spheres.

"The idea of tower", says Chihuly, "occurred to me as I looked at one of my chandeliers and pictured it upside down."

This tower, displayed in Toronto, was valued at $260,000.