Sculpture Information

I was going to carve this stone into a similar shape to the plumule sculpture but as I began to carve, I realised the patterned underside of the stone needed light to shine through it so it could be seen and celebrated. For this to happen the stone would need to be thinned. I had wanted an emerging sphere in the initial form so went with that and then realised this was a pearl in a shell!

The title Tear of Joy came from Greek mythology where Aphrodite, the goddess of love, cries tears of joy as pearls.

Pearls are formed within some molluscs due to the release of deposits to protect from the irritation of a piece of grit. Something which originally a hindrance becomes a thing of beauty.

This was going to be called the Pearl of Great Price from the parable of Jesus but not a great sales name!