Client: City of Coral Springs

Overview

A 12ft stainless steel and cast glass butterfly located Coral Springs, Florida on the Coral Springs Art Walk. This piece was designed to be an interactive. Visitors can stand in front of the wings and become the “body” of the butterfly for photo opportunities. The title, “Give Them Wings” comes from the quote, “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings.” – A wise woman
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Size: 12.5′ tall x 14′ wide x 10′ deep
Materials: Stainless Steel and cast glass
*Glass by Dierk Van Keppel of Rock Cottage Glassworks

Goals

The goals for this project were to create a family friendly, interactive sculpture piece that would create a photo opportunity and also relate to the community of Coral Springs, Florida.

Process

This project included collaboration with Rock Cottage Glassworks, who created the colored glass panels inset into the stainless steel wings. I creating individual molds for each glass shape needed. The molds were delivered to Rock Cottage Glassworks, along with a color map. Rock Cottage cast each piece of glass, and then returned them to me for fit up. Occasionally changes were needed, and the mold had to be altered and another piece cast. Once all glass was complete, it was fit up and marked with it's location so it could be installed in the correct spot on site.