This project was created to make the unfathomable reaches of the universe more tangible and immediate in our everyday. It aims to generate moments of wonder and curiosity in the routine of life.
The pieces were inspired by images of nebulae (cosmic dust clouds), captured by astronomy organisations around the world. These images were used to create lithophanes, that gave the ability to feel the texture of light shown within them. Through lithophane models, 3-D printing and plaster modelling techniques, two-dimensional images became three-dimensional objects.
The use of ceramics brings these deep sky objects down to a human scale to be held and used. Even the ceramic materials themselves used in these pieces were created within nebulae as they went through the birth and death cycle of stars.
The images chosen represent the different categories of nebula; dark, reflection, emission and planetary, with the scale of the bowls relational to the scale of these deep sky objects.
