The beauty of imperfection II

The sculpture is made of a core of black marble which is made more beautiful by the white vein imperfections in it. I first carved a crack twisting across the front of the cylinder. Black marble was challenging because it is a very hard stone. The steel ball bearings were harder to source than I had expected as I wanted different sizes, some I got out of old mechanisms I found at the skip but I had to buy some. I then filled the crack with stainless steel ball bearings and fixed them in place with araldite.

I am really happy with the outcome of this sculpture. I particularly like the way it feels. If I was to do this again I would make it larger and consider having the base wider or secured in some way so it would be more stable when exhibited as I may have to make a Perspex stand for it.

As a development of an imperfection can reveal something beautiful, I wanted to make a sculpture to represent that concept using the metallic and dark contrast.

I chose to work with black marble and steel ball bearings. I love the way the black marble absorbs light and the metal reflects it.