by Ellen C. Caldwell
for JSTOR Daily
Geodes have long captured the attention of geologists and the imagination of artists. Formed over many years, minerals such as quartz and amethyst dissolve and seep into air pockets and volcanic hollows. As they continue to grow inside the rock’s shell, they form beautifully dense crystals hidden behind an unassuming rock exterior.
Sculptor Elyse Graham makes fabulously bright, geode-inspired sculptures using latex and urethane. She will be showing her geodes and other sculptures at The Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York City March 19th through March 22nd. Process-wise, Graham uses bundles of inflated balloons to create a clustered base around which to build the latex, urethane, and plaster layers. The interior air pockets become the void around which the geode is built and the center upon which viewers focus, and it is this negative space that Graham indirectly sculpted with her own breath…