Dreamhand
This piece not only turned out almost exactly as I envisioned it (a rare thing in the world of artistic expression), but it was also great fun to make.

Like most of my plaster work, the piece started as a clay sculpture that was coated in latex to serve as a mold. Instead of a single casting, this piece was cast twice with the first layer of Hydrocal plaster being very thin. Once that first pouring was dry, it was cracked and broken then placed back in the mold and another layer of plaster was poured over it. The end result is a wonderful distressed effect that gives the piece a feeling of antiquity.

I've always been fascinated by the concept of relics and artifacts, something ancient and profoundly relevant in some way. One of the effects of time is to shade people and events in layers of mystery and legend, giving them a reverence and significance that they were almost surely ignorant of in their own time.

The Dreamhand itself is a part of all of us, that part of our mind's eye that sees and hears those things that most inspire us (see the poem "Dreamhand" for a another expression of this). It exists in all dimensions and emanates one of the most powerful of magics - our ability to find ourselves in the world around us.