Glass artist waits for lightning

Nelson glass artist and sculptor Jim Mackay has left for the Galena Ridge on the West Coast in an attempt to make glass from lightning.

He has received $9500 from Creative New Zealand towards the Fingers of God project, which he estimates will cost at least $15,000.

Mackay will build six plywood towers. Nelson artist Andrea Chandler has crocheted copper forms to sit in PVC tubes inside two of the towers.

Helium-filled weather balloons will lift 120m lengths of electric fence wire from the tubes, which will be filled with selected minerals to promote the creation of fulgurites (glass made when lightning hits the ground).

- NZPA