Activity: Build a Winter Chandelier

Learn about Dale Chihuly’s work Azure Icicle Chandelier. Then make your own winter chandelier inspired by the beauty of nature.

Look Closer:

Two spiky blue glass sculptures hang from an arched wooden ceiling. — Dale Chihuly, *Azure Icicle Chandelier*, 2016, blown glass and steel, 210 in. × 105 in. × 101 in. (533.4 × 266.7 × 256.5 cm). Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2019.11. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

Take a close look at this sculpture. What does the artwork remind you of? How might it feel if you could touch it?
Dale Chihuly created the Azure Icicle Chandelier specifically for Crystal Bridges’ Modern Art Gallery bridge to reflect the water, light, and glass on each side of the space.
This work is made of blown glass. Glass blowing is a technique that involves heating glass until it becomes molten–in a liquid state. This glass can then be inflated into a bubble using a blowpipe and formed into a variety of shapes.
This work is made of many different pieces of glass. Take a look at how many are placed together to create this chandelier!

Materials:

a blue ball of yarn, a pair of scissors, a white ball of yarn, and a wooden embroidery hoop against a blue background

Embroidery hoop
Yarn
Scissors

Instructions:

a blue ball of yarn, a pair of scissors, and a pair of hands wrapping a piece of white string around their hand against a blue background

Step 1: Start by placing the end of your string onto your palm and hold with your thumb. Begin wrapping the string around your fingers.

a blue ball of yarn, a pair of scissors, and a pair of hands holding a white bundle of string around their hand and cutting a piece of string with the scissors against a blue background

Step 2: After wrapping the string around many times, cut the end. The more times you wrap the string, the thicker the pom pom will be.

Step 3: Slide the yarn off your hand, being careful to keep it in place. Sit the yarn bundle on top of a cut piece of string. Tie the string as tight as you can in the middle of the bundle.

a blue ball of yarn, a pair of scissors, and a pair of hands pinching a wrapped white ball of string at both ends to form a circular shape against a blue background

a blue ball of yarn, a pair of scissors, and a pair of hands pulling the string of a white ball of yarn to form a shape

a blue ball of yarn, a pair of scissors, and a pair of hands holding a white yarn pom pom against a blue background

Step 4: Trim the pom pom in order to create even lengths of string and to shape.

Step 5: Take the smaller circle in your embroidery hoop and tie your pom poms onto the hoop at different lengths. Also add two strings at the top to use for hanging your work of art. This works best in an “X” pattern to hang evenly.

a pair of wooden embroidery hoops against a blue background

a pair of hands folding white string across a wooden embroidery hoops with additional blue and white yarn pom poms

blue and white pom poms hanging from a circular wooden frame against a blue backdrop

Helpful hint: Ask other members of your family to make pom poms. Because everyone has different-sized hands, this will mean you now have a variety!

Have fun exploring! Share your winter chandelier with us on social media – tag #crystalbridges on Instagram.

Written by Marlie Allgood, art instructor, Crystal Bridges.