Saturday, September 15, 2007

CRYSTALWORKS

Everyone who wanders by here knows I love gems and crystals but they don't have to be set in jewellery to be appreciated. The photo below shows natural Selenite crystal on Bronze. The crystal weighs 120 pounds and the sculpture is called 'IBEX'.

Lawrence Stoller is an internationally recognized award winning artist who has pioneered the art of sculpting spectacular megagems, including several of the largest gemstone sculptures in existence. He lives with his wife Sunnie in Bend, Oregon where he also works and teaches.

His collaborative work 'BAHIA' stands as the cornerstone of the museum collection at the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, California.
Lawrence Stoller and Glenn Lehere sculpted Rutilated quartz and placed it in a gold plated steel frame by Pepe Ozan.
The overall height is five feet and the crystal weighs 450 pounds.
In 2003, Stoller completed a commission for American Express, creating the centrepiece of the 9/11 Eleven Tears Memorial, located across the street from Ground Zero. I think this is one of the most beautiful memorials ever created. It was designed by Ken Smith and is a sculpted eleven sided quartz hendecohedron held in a stainless steel frame and cable. The crystal weight is 600 pounds.

This close detail shows the wording on the floor directly below the crystal.


These are Stoller's own words from his Crystalworks website.
The Crystals will be my books,
Reading into them to discover life
beyond the margins.
Journeying from primal Earth,
past ancient civilizations,
From the timeless technologies,
to the inside of matter,
Through the gates of knowledge,
and into the terrains of Wonder.
My attempts to translate these
experiences into words
Are but record keepers
Of the magnificient remains of Frozen Light.


7 comments:

JahTeh said...

Forgot the address if you want to see more,
http://crystalworks.com/index.htm

Brian Hughes said...

Nice bit o' crystal that. Not sure about all that passin' through the margins o' knowledge bollocks an' creatin' words in tureens of wonder, but I'll give y' ten bob for the lot if y' want.

JahTeh said...

You'd be hard put to find anything like that up the Cairngorms. Have you found any Roman crystals around the Fylde and Wyre? They seemed to have like a bit of bling.

phil said...

IBEX sounds like a business convention.

Brian Hughes said...

Apparently the druids liked their crystals and used to turn them into pendants or something called 'Druids' Eggs', but we haven't come across any yet. (On the other hand, the druids might just have had a peculiar method of reproduction.) We found a rather snazzy crystal thing once carved into the shape of a phallus, but it was attached to a string round some new-age witch's neck at the time and when we gave it a tug she started turning purple, so we left it in situ.

JahTeh said...

Ibex is an Sth African antelope and I'm trying to see a leaping horned animal in the crystal shape or maybe a Queenslander.

Dammit Hughes, now I'm going to have to google 'Druids crystals' to see if you're kidding.

JahTeh said...

Ha, now I see the Ibex, it's just the head not a whole animal.