Crystal Icosahedron
Smelted Quartz
2016
height: 30cm / diameter: 36cm (approx)
The photographs show one of a pair of Icosahedra hand carved from solid blocks of smelted rock crystal. Of all the Platonic solids, the Icosahedron is my favourite since it displays, to me, the pinnacle of geometric perfection. Over the years, I have made these beautiful objects again and again in wood, card, plastic, clay and metal, such is my obsession with them.
In around 350 BC Plato proposed that the four classical elements of earth, air, fire and water were composed of tiny little solids (what we now think of as atoms), each of perfect geometric form, reasoning that water should be composed of icosahedra since it is the one that rolls most easily. Making these amazing pieces in a translucent material gives a tangible link to that association.
This substantial pair of Icosahedra weigh in at a whopping 36kg each!
£3,000