http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=9767
Over the course of the next several months I will keep updating this album with progress on the piece and commentary on the challenges encountered. Be sure to keep stopping back to see it develop.

Here is a follow up note. Thanks to everyone who came out for ArtPrize 2010 and voted for my piece. I didn't quite make it into the final round. However, I did really well, staying in the Top 25 the majority of the time and finishing somewhere between 11th and 25th. (ArtPrize doesn't report exactly where people placed beyond the top 10 winners.) At the current time, Radiant Efflorescence is still for sale. The William Zimmer Gallery will be showing it at the SOFA Chicago show Oct. 31st - Nov. 3rd., 2013.]]> en-us Gallery 2 RSS Module, version 1.1.7 Thu, 20 Jun 2013 07:21:00 -0400 120 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=9771 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=9767 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15312 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15312
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:29:11 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15309 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15309
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:29:11 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15306 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15306
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:28:30 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15303 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15303
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:28:30 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15300 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15300
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This is a close-up detail of the interior. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:28:30 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15297 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15297
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:28:30 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15294 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15294
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:28:30 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15291 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15291
Here is a shot of Radiant Efflorescence #831 in it's finished state. This is a close-up detail of the exterior chasing work. This piece has been a long journey. It's challenged me in so many ways. It's forced and inspired me to become a better person in order to complete it. In some ways I'm actually sad to finish it. I hope it can bring beauty, joy, and inspiration into the lives of all who see it.

It is made from copper, sterling silver, 23-karat gold leaf. The size is 26" x 22" x 22". It has taken between 800 to 1000 hours to complete and quite likely well over a million hammer blows.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the process of transforming a large flat sheet of copper into this final piece.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:28:30 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15287 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15287
Here is a shot of the piece after I've finished the first round of leafing. It went very well. There are only a few spots that really need touch up, though I see several more that could use it. I'll do that tomorrow, but it is essentially done.

I think this photo does a nice job of showing how much it transforms with the light. The piece really comes alive. It becomes numinous. I noticed while doing this that the transformation to an inhabited space didn't really begin until I was about 2/3 of the way done.

For those who like numbers this round of leafing took 10.5 hours to do. The slow set sizing really does live up to it's name. It had a very long working time. I'm going to put in another hour doing the touch-up work. The vessel ended up taking 206.75 sheets of gold.]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:16:49 -0400 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15284 http://davidhuang.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15284
Here is an image of the set-up I cobbled together for leafing this piece. With the smaller vessels I can just set them on the table in front of me. That wouldn't work here. The vessel is actually sitting in a plastic tub with bath towels for padding. All of this is setting on a footstool. This allows me to adjust the angle the vessel is sitting at. I have lights set up to give me good illumination. The books of gold leaf are on my tree stump.

What I've been doing is gently picking up each sheet with both hands and dropping it into place. Then I use a large soft brush to pat it all down. Next a smaller soft brush is used to finish smoothing it all down and moving the dust and small bits of gold around to fill in cracks. It's not really difficult work, but it is very slow, precise, methodical works. You don't rush leafing, or breath too hard!]]> David Huang photo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:16:49 -0400