Glass Float Project

Walking along the beach and you spot something shining in the sun light. Go ahead and check it out, it might just be a hidden treasure plant ed for you to find! Among the sand, rocks, and bits of sea glass, you may be one of the lucky few who discover a Glass Float.

Created in 2012 by Eben Horton,

The Glass Float Project gives visitors to the island an opportunity to slow down, to look, take in, and absorb Block Island’s natural beauty. Hun dreds of floats are placed around the island during the year. Most of them are clear, but some are colored and one is gold, and are randomly hidden across the island. Some are hidden along the beaches above the high tide line, and some are carefully placed along the island’s miles of Greenway Trails. The rules are simple... If you find one, keep it! If you find another, please leave it so that someone else can find it. For additional information and to register your float, visit blockis landinfo.com.

Photo by Tracy Finn Photo by Eben Horton

Eben Horton, Glass Float Project

Eben Horton

I first came to Block Island when I was eight years old on my grandparent’s sailboat. To spend a week on a boat with no shower or refrigeration was the price they were willing to pay to visit such a beautiful island.

I, being stuck with them and always on foot, grew to appreciate the areas around New Harbor, with an occasional long walk to Old Harbor, which often ended in an ice cream reward.

Then, as a young teenager, my parents and I would live on our sailboat all summer long, frequently spending time at Block Island. By this time I knew the island fairly well, and loved riding my bicycle around. My memories of the island then, pair well with what I see today, thanks to the lengths that the island has gone to preserve its open spaces.

Being stuck on a boat with family did have its drawbacks. For example, much of the island remained a mystery to me until I was an adult with a bad fishing habit. Just when I thought I knew every inch of the island, I started to discover more and more places. Quite surprised with all of my little discoveries, I started dreaming of creating an art project that would share all of these special nooks and crannies of the island that not even some of the locals knew about. I knew there was a need on the island for a healthy activity for those people who like to stay active and have a purpose while on vacation and remembered the time when I was just starting to make glass in the early 1990’s. Myself and a friend hid a backpack full of slightly flawed paperweights along the beaches

My Block Island

of mainland Rhode Island for fun. I never heard about anyone finding any of the glass, but I am sure it was all found and brought immense surprise and joy to the people who were lucky enough to find them. After securing grant funding and the blessings of the people of Block Island in 2011, I created the Glass Float Project. It is an interactive public art project where people are encouraged to get out and explore the island. We (myself, my wife Jen and my assistants who work for me at my glass studio) make around 550 glass fishing floats and hide them all over the island. If you find one, you can keep it. If you find another one we ask that you leave it for another person to find, or have fun re-hiding it on the island. This project has been a way for me to re-discover areas of block island that I loved as a child and most importantly has helped me discover even more areas I had never known had existed. Block Island truly is one of the country’s greatest conserved places and I could not be happier to provide a fun way for people to get out and explore the island.