Classroom Chihully-style Chandelier

I may not have a hot spot and the ability to teach students how to blow glass, we did the next best thing. We created our own version of a Dale Chihully glass chandelier by upcycling water bottles and platic scraps from the laminating machine. Chihully is not only, arguably, the most famous contemporary glass artist in the world, he also has worn an eye patch since a car accident decades ago, and that loss of perifial vision makes him legally blind, just like my students. He works with a team, just like we can work as a team. And he makes large scale art for specific places, which is what we wanted to do for our school

We started with a tube of chicken wire and hung it from the ceiling. We colored donated bottles with sharpies, taped wire to the top to wrap in plastic wrap and then packing tape, colored laminating paper or cellophane. A heat gun helped melt the plastic into shape. The wire made it possible to twist the ends to make the shapes more organic and less bottle shaped. We ran out of laminating paper, and cellophane, and our sharpies even dried up before we were finished, so we ended up using tissue paper for the tips of some of the "tentacles" for better term.

We poked holes on either side of each bottles bottom, and then threaded a wire through the bottle, long enough to attach it to the chicken wire. It's easiest to start from the bottom and work your way up, but it did help to place a bottle or two of each color hire on the wire skeleton just to know how to space out each color. It's been really fun to see people walk past my door and then walk back and come in, noting that they had to see what that amazing thing was. We may not be able to afford a real Chihully chandelier, but our first attempt will more than do.