We never really leave....

 For the next layer of my 'universe' core, I wanted to explore the fact that nothing ever leaves the universe... or does it and we just don't have that information?

We, as humans, will always stay in close proximity to the earth, apart from the small amount of people that have travelled to other planets, but in the grand scheme of things, we are never far from home.  Even when we die.   Where do we go?   What is left?  Where does that stay?

People believe many different things about death, beliefs formed by religion, culture or experience, but the reality is we leave a shell, a bunch of bones, a pile of ash, but we also leave a load of memories and influences.

I wanted to take the thought that we never leave the universe and depict it within the glass sculpture, making a statement that although our bodies are gone, we will always remain in some form, somewhere.   As a child we are taught to assign a star to our loved ones and imagine them in the dark night sky, so I tried to use that theory.

A friend, very kindly, gave me some of her dog's cremation ashes to make this piece with.  I would have liked to have used something a little more personal, but also understand that it could make it quite a challenging piece for some people to view... so I thought an animal might be a 'softer' introduction to the idea of working with cremation ashes for some viewers.

I shot a little video to show how the beads are formed.

Once the beads had been in the kiln overnight (this brings them slowly back to room temperature so they don't crack) it was time to take them off the mandrels and give them a clean.

Once all the clay was removed from the cores of the beads they are given a quick wash, it is then that you can appreciate how lovely the ash looks encased in the glass.

So, now it was time to put these beads with my other ones in my hanging mobile type sculpture.

I wanted two definite layers, the Nebula layer with the .... let's call it a 'Memory' layer, underneath.  I would like to think that our memories of our loved ones are always near by, just twinkling above our heads.

So, I am happy with the way that is going now, time to work on the next layer.