Bright Stuff
See related story: Bright Stuff
To create this outdoor sculpture at the Wellcome Trust in London, Heatherwick first made a 2-inch-long blob by pouring molten metal into water. The form was digitized with a 3-D face scanner borrowed from a hospital near Heatherwick’s studio. The scanner’s modeling program assigned coordinates to every pixel, and each was then made into a glass bead 1.6 inches in diameter. 26,732 stainless steel wires support the beads, and small springs at the base of each wire keep the 100-foot-high sculpture taut and in place.Photo: Donald Milne
