Quilty glass

Magnet #766 - Chihuly's Sun Panels

Another one from my Columbus, Indiana, collection. Again, if you haven't gone to Columbus, and you know, you're in the area roadtripping, it's worth a drop-by.

I'm very sad to report that I missed seeing this piece at the Columbus Learning Center. Though it looks like a pretty qulit, it's actually a specially commissioned piece by Chihuly, called Sun Panel Garden, a painted collection of 32, 3' x 3-ish panels suspended from the ceiling. It's backlit by the sun and artificially spotlit at night, and they basically show all of Chihuly's blown-glass forms - his reeds, his baskets, ikebana (flower arrangements), floats, etc.

I love all the shots of everyone visiting craning their necks to look up to admire it. There's a part of me that wouldn't dare step under it, though. There's this whole complex steel grid and tubular steel that holds up the panels - the whole piece is something like 19 feet!

But it is so very pretty, I bet it'd made for a great swaggy blanket or quilt.

Hmmm, I wonder if I didn't miss that in their supercute gift shop at the visitors center!