Block Island Glass Float Project: For the first 24 hours after registering afloat, it will not appear on the “Discovered floats” page. The hunt begins on June 4, 2021, and goes on indefinitely until all of the floats are recovered! Floats are placed over the course of the year, rather than all at once. All but a few floats will be on display between June and October.
Floats will be hidden on the beaches and on the Greenway Trails. They will never be found in the dunes or on the bluffs above the high tide mark. Greenway trails they are situated on will be within a few feet of each other. Floats are never located on private property, and breaking down a stone wall is never necessary to locate one. Please don’t disturb the property! The school’s grounds do not conceal any floats. Glass orbs the size of orange will be concealed across Block Island in 550 locations. There will be a block island-shaped stamp on each float. Except for 21, which is a distinctive colored orb (because it is 2021), all of the floats are clear glass. If you come across afloat, please let us know by clicking the link above.
Anybody!
The Artist’s Biography
Eben Horton Glass is the author of this work. Eben’s studio, which he calls “The Glass Station,” was a former gas station that he renovated into a one-of-a-kind work of art. While in the School of American Crafts, Eben completed an independent research project in Murano, Italy. He also taught at the Corning Museum of Glass. Eben’s architectural talents have recently been in high demand, building big installations, custom lighting, and historical reconstructions of early American and 17th-century glassware, among other projects.
Eben, on the other hand, refuses to describe his work as a single kind of glass and takes great satisfaction in his abilities as a highly accomplished technical craftsman. Forget about being just another mass-produced piece of glass, since Eben is one of the country’s most adaptable glassmakers and can bring any vision, design, or restoration project to life.
EVENTS AND ATTRACTIONS ON THE ISLAND
An ambitious 2021 glass float project: Throughout the entire season For those of you who have always liked Easter egg hunts, we’ve taken things up a notch with the Glass Float Project, an island-wide search for orbs of a more precious type. Ten years after the search began, this year’s hunt will begin on June 1st. The floats are out all year long, and the quest continues. For this event, the island will hide 550 glass “floats” (orbs the size of an orange) on beaches and Greenway pathways.
While most will be crystal clear (because 2021 is the year), there will be a special number of colored and patterned floats (21 in total). By handcrafting, numbering, and stamping each of these floats, glass artist Eben Horton (www.ebenhortonglass.com), who invented the interactive public art project, ensures that each float is unique. Keep any floating object you come across as long as you comply with the following two requests: The Block Island Tourism Council (www.blockislandinfo.com) requires that you register any floats you locate with them so that they can keep track.
There are a few suggestions
if you decide to go looking: floats can be found on the beaches above high tide (but never in the dunes, or up the side of bluffs) and on the Greenway Trails (watch out for poison ivy!). The Welcome Center across from the boat docks has maps of the island. The quest is on! As a young man in 2011, Eben Horton had no idea that The Glass Float Project would grow into what it is today. An enjoyable personal endeavor that allowed him more time on Block Island turned into a world-famous art piece that impacted many people’s lives in a profound way.
After 11 years of work, this project has received national recognition from The New York Times, PBS Weekends with Yankee, This Old House, and CBS Sunday Morning. Eben’s family lived in Newport, Rhode Island, and sailed to and from Block Island frequently during his boyhood. Eben’s love and admiration for the island and its natural splendor were fostered during his childhood summers spent exploring its coasts, lakes, and paths.
Eben started blowing glass when he was 16
Eben started blowing glass when he was 16, and he first started hiding glass in natural locations when he was 16. Despite the fact that the pieces he made were fractured and generally unusable, he could not bear to discard them. They were given new life by him, who left hidden treasures on the shores of Newport, Rhode Island.
The Glass Float project was born in 2011 as a result of a growing interest in the pastime. Eben designed the first 150 floats with the support of a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts funding, taking inspiration from the Japanese fishing net floats that occasionally drift up onto beaches all around the world. He began burying them on the beaches and greenway pathways that connect the island’s preserved lands after receiving authorization from the Block Island town council.
Since then, it has increased in scope and notoriety. Every year he and his wife, Jennifer Nauck, produce more than 550 floats at their Rhode Island workshop The Glass Station Studio and Gallery. They are numbered from 1 to 550 and dated according to the year. The first few floats, which match the current year’s number, are always particularly eye-catching due to their vivid colors. The first 22 numbered floats will be colored, with the remainder being clear glass, in this year’s race (2022).
Started out as “Orbivores,”
From June until October and occasionally beyond, a group of volunteers, some of whom started out as “Orbivores,” hide the floats one at a time. Beaches, greenways, and other public locations are used to hide the floats. The sand dunes, bluffs, and other ecologically sensitive locations are never used as hideouts by hiders. If you are looking for floats concealed on the beach, look between the bluffs and the high tide line, which is where floats hidden on the route are.
The Glass Float Project, a scavenger hunt and interactive art project, draws visitors from across the country to the island. Float hunters are urged to record their finds with the Block Island Tourism Council once they’ve found them. Members of Orbivores, a growing online community of Glass Float Project supporters, always respond positively to posts made to the group’s Facebook page. In order to minimize waste, float hunters are only allowed to keep one float at a time. We want them to spread the word if they find more than one so that others can enjoy the thrill of discovery as well.
Every year, raffle tickets are sold to raise money for the project. When the float hunting season officially ends in October, the raffle is in place (but continues unofficially). It’s possible to win a Make Your Own Float lesson or even the opportunity to hide afloat for the next year at the Glass Station’s annual float-hiding competition.
