Touchy-feely at RHS Chelsea 2010
David Harber's stand at RHS Chelsea 2010 was once again a visual and aural delight. Designed by Christine Popplewell, the stand set off various beautiful sundials, garden sculpture and gurgling water features against elegant flowerless planting in various shades of green.
On show publicly for the first time ever was our Blagrave Dial, David's recreation of the famous Mathematical Jewel sundial designed by his Tudor ancestor John Blagrave.
We were showing off three other new pieces too: an elegant freestanding glass vertical dial, next to the Blagrave Dial in the photo; a stone water wall — our first water wall not made out of metal; and a water feature obelisk with water streaming down all four sides. The water features obelisk stands on the left in the panoramic view of the stand at the bottom of the page.
The stand was dominated by two large Dark Planet garden spheres. One was huge — two metres in diameter and two tonne in weight. It had to be craned into place.
A testament to the very tactile impression created by the Dark Planet is that nobody — really, nobody — passing either of the Dark Planet's could resist putting out a hand and feeling the surface of the sculptures.
And maybe a quarter of the touchy-feely people also asked how to change the light bulb inside!
(A: There's a removeable section at the top of the sphere.)
With lots of activity and interest on our stand, this was overall a very exciting Chelsea for David Harber.
