Making the orbs, Zach Doster, Professor Brian Roberts, Grace Parrish and Gunner Hutton. (Central College photo)
A treasure hunt of sorts gets underway today in a park in Pella.
Glass orbs made by students at Central College will be hidden in Pella’s Big Rock Park for people to find. The president of the park’s board, George Clark, says he got the idea from an artist who hid his work in Rhode Island.
“He actually was kind of inspired during the pandemic because there were so few people coming into his shop, his gallery I should say — and so that’s kind of where these were born out of making an effort to get more folks into his shop,” Clark says.
There will be 23 brightly colored glass orbs to match the year 2023. “We’re gonna spread it out, we’re gonna hide like five a month,” Clark says, “so June, July, August, September, and then probably end up with you know those last few in October.”
Clark says the orbs will be hidden in the 83-acre park, but won’t be too hard to find because the idea is to get people involved. “We want folks to find your orbs, take pictures with your orbs, post them on our Facebook page. And you know and that’s supposed to be kind of part of that fun outing that families and you know citizens and visitors can take part in,” he says.
Those who find the glass orbs can keep them.”In the process of finding the orbs in the park we hope they discover the natural beauty of Big Rock Park,” Clark says. Clark turned to his fellow Central graduate and current art professor, Brian Roberts, to create the orbs.
Roberts says students in his second year glass blowing glass took on the project. “It takes one person to shape the glass, and another person to put air into the blowpipe to expand the glass to make these circular spherical forms. And then another person eventually is gathering some collecting some hot glass to make the stamps,” Roberts says.
The stamps are a symbol representing the park. “Each of the orbs have a face of a barred owl stamped into ’em,” he says. The orbs are also numbered. Find out more by going to the Friends of Big Rock Park website at: friendsofbigrockpark.org.