Glass blowing is something that I have always found beautiful in a lot of ways. Dann says it’s because we see nature in glass as it almost shows movement and shaping in a way that we, as humans, compare to the world around us. When I was younger, my parents use to take us to a glass blowing studio, where a family friend would blow glass into bubbles and shape them or make stained glass windows. It was always so interesting to watch. When I saw that Kew Gardens was having a Chihuly collection, full of beautiful glass work which mimics nature, I just had to go along.
With Dann and my brother in tow, we went to their last night session, exploring the gardens completely light up, showcasing the glass work on a cool autumn evening. Arriving at Kew Gardens, which we’d never been to before, was a simple task. There was a short queue into the exhibition, which is nearly entirely outside. Once our tickets were checked, we were face to face with the first piece; a giant blue, spiky glass orb-type thing, that we had seen on all the advertisement, especially the images on the London underground.
Dale Chihuly’s story
From there, you can follow a trail with small lights along the side. It’s a gentle walk, which probably has lots of cool tress and plants along the way. In the dark it felt mysterious, the light bouncing off the ground and dampness around it. We made our way to the gallery. This was a good taste of what was to come, however, there was a short queue that we waited in first. This queue was because the gallery is indoor and has a limited number of people that can enter. You can continue around and not go inside this area, but we wanted to see what was inside. The gallery has a lot of quotes from the artist Chihuly, as well as drawings and sketches that relate to the glass work. The idea of this gallery was to allow people to understand more of why they created the art they did.
In other rooms, you can find smaller pieces of glass work by Chihuly, showcased in a variety of ways. My brother and I quite enjoyed the ‘alien plants’ located in the middle of one of the main rooms – which really looked quite interesting. I also liked the spheres of glass that seemed to have glass rocks lodged in the side. There also was a section of the gallery full of traditional flower paintings, which seemed nice as well, but was not the glass work I was excited about, so we quickly ducked out and back onto the trail. We walked around to more enormous glass sculptures, each light up more than the last. All of these pieces matched the flowers and shrubs around them, blending into the world they were laid into. There was a huge marble-esque section in some racked gravel, as well as a very tall looking spiky plant.
An indoor garden, full of plants and glass
We then made our way to the second building, an indoor garden which was probably my favorite part of the entire place. This garden was marvelous on it’s own, but with touches of glass here and there, live music being played on an organ, and a great atmosphere, this building is amazing to look around. In the center hung a large flowered piece, which castes shadows across the floor, making a very interesting look all around. Bits of grass broke open to different colored blown glass, peaking out here and there. Each corner had a new bit of art, just waiting to be discovered. It’s really a lovely time.
Outside one exit, you were brought slightly outside, to two parallel lines of glass worms, poking up from the ground among trees, which was mysterious and fun to walk around. These looked very interesting, with the amount of them being so great in number, that they seemed to belong. A lot of the glass work by Chihuly was in yellow and red tones, including these worms poking up. You could then re-enter the indoor garden and walk around to the actual exit, before returning to the trail.
A warm building with a lily pad
The last building we entered had another queue, but was well worth the wait. Not sure what to expect, when we entered the building we were hit with a smell much like a clean swamp. In the middle of the room was a warm pool, steam gently gliding off the surface, full of real lily pads and glass lily pads, which you could walk around. As soon as I entered, my glasses started fogging up. The room was very warm but beautiful in so many ways. It was worth walking around and getting a view of this piece from all angles, before exiting the tiny building and seeing the last of the outdoor trail.
The last glass feature we saw was one of the more impressive ones outside. Following the trail, we got to see an almost fire-ball looking glass sculpture, reflecting a mirror image of itself in the lake around it. Positioned perfectly, you could see the light reflecting well, before moving up towards the piece and seeing all of the delicate work that it took to make that massive ball. Chihuly did a wonderful job with the exhibition and we all left thinking about the beautiful works of art we saw. Though glass doesn’t always look as delicate or bendable as plants do, they really fit well into each and every place and a lot of care was taken to make it feel that way.
Kew Gardens does loads of different exhibitions each year, but you can find more about Dale Chihuly on his website.
You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!