Blowzone were heavily involved with the organisation of the highly successful International Festival of Glass held at the Ruskin Glass Centre in August 2004. Synergy was conceived as a means of celebrating the regeneration of Stourbridge glass. Glass artists, factories and students from Dudley College and the University of Wolverhampton were invited to collaborate on this groundbreaking community project.

After some negotiation Chelsfield (now Westfield) the controlling body for the Merry Hill shopping centre, were delighted to commission a large outside installation as part of their public art trail.

The concept was devised by Iestyn Davies, David Prytherch and Keith Brocklehurst, all key members on the festival committee, with the design researched and expanded by Iestyn of Blowzone in conjunction with INC. Architects Ltd.

Glassmakers packed into two local factories, Royal Brierley Crystal and Tudor Crystal, who kindly donated their facilities and skilled glassmakers during the International Festival of Glass. Four experienced glassblowers were then sourced to lead the two teams. Carl Nordbruch and Chris Jones from the Isle of Wight led the team at Royal Brierley while Seattle glassmakers Charlie Parriott and Ben Cobb worked with the Tudor Crystal team, both under the creative direction of Iestyn. The teams spent three days creating an intricate series of forms describing the evolution of a glass vessel; these were then to be later encapsulated in the huge 10 metre high pyramidal structure on site at Merry Hill.

The project grew in complexity as the concept neared fruition. The whole structure needed to be lit spectacularly, to be ventilated to control any adverse condensation and to be robust enough in
an external environment. Consequently it now has a toughened laminate glass exterior, 720 state-of-the-art colour changing super bright LEDs and RGB controllers and an integral air conditioning plant. The structure is crowned with an acrylic spire and polished stainless steel spheres.

Blowzone spent two and a half weeks painstakingly gluing over 700 individually hand blown vessels and solid forms together into a cohesive structure inside the pyramid.

This landmark sculpture is a superb legacy of the inaugural International Festival of Glass and has provided the UK with an exciting and truly innovative architectural statement and celebration of British glassmaking.