"Temple" by KVANT-1

Design and illustration studio KVANT-1 (the Norwegian trio of Vegard Aarseth, Nicholas O’Leary, and Jan-Erik Sletten) created a fantastical photographic journey they call "Temple" in which a trio of mystics approach and enter a magical temple made from minerals (the entrance features enormous rounds of rose selenite) and crystals.

The team describes the visuals: "The scene is set in a land foreign to all where the definition is deliberately undefined. Built upon a disintegration of absolutes, the Temple is an interplay of seeming contradictions. Dark becomes light, stone becomes flesh, barrenness becomes life, grounded becomes weightless, solid becomes fluid. The unknown is one of the most potent fuels for imagination. And in the midst of the pandemic, partly as a form of escapism due to the restrictions, we set about exploring more of the unknown."

https://kvant1.no/

BEAUTY: Sculpture AND Jewelry--Debra Baxter

I love crystals and mineral formations and artist Debra Baxter uses them in startling sculptures as well as incredible jewelry pieces. I love her "Crystal Knuckles" series, and her alabaster holster full of amethyst and smokey quartz is fun and beautiful at the same time.

"Debra Baxter is a sculptor and jewelry designer who combines carved alabaster with crystals, minerals, metals, and found objects. She received her MFA in Sculpture from Bard College in 2008 and her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1996. She also studied at Academia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. Baxter has received an Artist Trust Individual Artist Grant, three 4Culture Individual Project Grants in Seattle, Washington, and was recently nominated for a Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award.

Baxter’s wearable sculpture piece Devil Horns Crystal Brass Knuckles (Lefty) is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery."

Crystal Brass Knuckles (Aura Blow)--Aqua Aura Crystal and White Rhodium Plated Bronze

Basta--Cedar, Quartz Crystals, Alabaster

Coming Up For Air--Glass, Alabaster, Selenite

Crystal Brass Knuckles II--Quartz crystals, Gold plated bronze

Crystal Brass Knuckles (I am going to realign your chakras motherf*****)--Quartz crystals, Sterling silver

Devil's Horn Crystal Brass Knuckles (Lefty)--Quartz crystal, Sterling silver

From The Hip--Alabaster, Amethyst, Smokey quartz, Leather

In the Marrow of my Bone--Alabaster, Malachite

Malachite--Bronze and Malachite

Mic Drop--Glass, Alabaster

Mine--Alabaster, Glass

Pyrolysis--Smokey quartz, Burnt wood, Bronze

Take Your Medicine--Quart crystal, Sterling silver

Face Down (About To Get Up And Fight)--Cast Glass, Citrine

https://debrabaxter.com/

A Malachite Moment

I love malachite.

BEAUTY: Ceramics--Renee Brown

Ceramicist Renee Brown uses clay to make objects that look like crystal and mineral formations. I love how she uses texture and the glaze process to convincingly replicate specimens that look as if they have been mined form the earth. In her Artist Statement, Brown says, "My sculptures are crafted from a personal vernacular of beauty. Referencing objects from the mineral world, I am inspired by the endless possibilities of surface and composition. My imagination’s interpretation of these objects flow into the work, often bypassing what might rationally be found in nature. This blurred line between reality and created reality intrigues me. Minerals that are mined for ceramic supply enter my studio in their pummeled state and are transformed into the visual essence of their original existence."

http://www.reneebrownceramics.com/

The Magic of Minerals

Smoky Quartz and Spessartine

Opal veins in stone matrix

Smoky quartz on pyrite

Emerald

Malachite with Chrysocolla

Rutilated Quartz with hematite

Elbaite tourmaline

Rhodocrosite

Smoky Amethyst with Hematite inclusions

Manganotantalite

Fluorite

Dioptase and Calcite

BEAUTY: Sculpture--Livio Scarpella

Italian artist Livio Scarpella works in many mediums but perhaps his most startling works are done in marble. He created a series of classical busts but each figure is embedded with a quartz crystal or mineral "heart" as it were...an interesting confluence of two natural textures, but also an arresting metaphor that links us to something much older and more visceral. These ghostly, veiled figures are clearly still moving, but are not quite of our world anymore...

There are many examples of his work on the net but I can't find a dedicated site for him. If anyone finds one, let me know: I'd love to post the link.