Chihuly's and Carpenter's best-known and most influential work of this period was an assemblage shown in 1971 and 1972 in two versions and in three different locations. Glass Forest consists of approximately one hundred, 6 to 9 feet tall, opaque white milk-glass stalks that rest upon the flattened residue of the molten balls of glass from which they were made. Similar elements mounted on the wall and, in Providence and Zurich, smaller elements coming from the ceiling completed this piece. All the elements of Glass Forest were illuminated with argon and mercury and clustered in enclosed spaces of about 500 square feet.

First installed at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (later renamed the American Craft Museum) in New York City in a black Plexiglas and vinyl-covered space, the elements were then transported back to Providence to be reassembled in the general faculty show at RISD's Museum of Art in an all-white environment. On opening night Chihuly positioned a young woman (Eva Kwong) clad entirely in white within the installation, and Chihuly's next installation/performance of the piece in Providence involved several women dressed in white. From beneath the stage, the glass stalks were charged with high-frequency energy which caused color modulations when the women touched them.

Again in a white environment, Glass Forest was included in the important Glas Heute (Glass Today) exhibition at the Museum Bellerive in Zurich, Switzerland, in the summer of 1972. Chihuly's piece was the most ambitious sculpture in the show, and because of its eccentric form and innovative use of materials, it helped establish new directions for Europe's contemporary studio-glass movement.

With pieces such as Glass Forest and 20,000 Pounds of Ice, Chihuly and Carpenter attracted wide notoriety and helped to redefine the studio-glass movement worldwide. Chihuly still considers the early 1970s one of the most creative periods of his life.