Art Blog #52: Space Art 3d Object Ideas, Tiny Cosmos Sculptures and Galactic Statues

Crafting the Undiscovered - Space Art Ideas: Small & Miniature Sculptures

From the beginning of my sculptural path I have found myself captivated by the unknown, crafting pieces that symbolized the undiscovered and mysterious complexity of the cosmos. Each of my sculptures are an attempt to connect with the vastness and infinity of imagination space evokes inside of me. Space art ussualy depicts space exploration in terms of existing space programs. I have my own way of expressing the idea of discovering life in space. You could call it Space Art but more accurate and searcheable term would be "Speculative Paleontology". As ussual with my sculptural work the inspiration source for these series of tiny sculpture was the Universe again. But this time it has gotten an interesting new twist!

Sculpted by Nature

The given summer ocassion has shifted my attention as a sculptor from the stars to the sea. More specifically, the vibrant but hidden world found along the seashore. Beaches are teeming with life—tiny creatures scurrying about, resilient and often overlooked, yet essential to the ecosystem. The shore is a lively, chaotic place, washed tirelessly wave after wave. It is filled with curious beings that constantly remind us of nature's creativity in shapes and forms. All those amazingly "sculpted by nature" life forms are everywhere, and I aimed at having my own sculptural spin on them.

My Version of Space Art

This new source of inspiration has led me to a new series of seashell inspired small and tiny sculptures, where I imagined life forms stemming from an imaginary distant planet with conditions somewhat similar to ours. Could you call it Space Art? There is definitely an aspect of space exploration in these sculptural series but people never imagine the past as a subject of discovery in the Space Art. I mean we might as well discover fossils of exctinct species in the Space one day. That is what my version of Space Art is about.

Speculative Paleontology in Sculpture

There is a trend among paleontology fans called speculative paleontology. It is about geeking out on a hypothetical alternative exoplanetary ecosystems. The idea is to consider a slightly shifted life conditions as we have them on our planet Earth. The game is to imagine the implications of the alternative evolution on the formation of life. As mentionned, Space Art in terms of visualizing the discovery of the remains of the extinct species in space is pretty much the drive and inspiration for my larger, small and most recently the tiny "Galactic Fossil Sculptures".

Sculpting Exoplanetary Ecosystem

In this latest tiny sculpture art collection I’ve been envisioning what the ecosystem of a faraway seashore might look like. The creatures that inhabit this fictional world share traits with Earth’s shore-dwellers—small crustaceans, mollusks, and arthropods—but with a twist. I imagined them evolving in different ways, shaped by slightly altered conditions of their home planet, yet still connected to the core designs of life we see here on Earth. My miniature crustacean sculptures are actually made of steel. This makes for a pretty strong crust!

How do you create tiny sculptures?

The sculptures themselves are made from steel, combined with naturally occurring seashells I’ve collected over time. There’s something about using real shells that feels right—connecting the imaginary creatures to our world in a tangible way. The shells, like the creatures they represent, are remnants of life by the sea, each unique in its form and texture. All steel parts are custom made and you will find out soon I sketched and hand drawn each peace on a piece of paper first. Galactic evolution started on the paper!

Small sculptures - From sketch book to reality

Before bringing any of these sculptures into reality, I sketched each one with a ballpen in my small notebook. Right on the beach! I mean that´s the place that inspired me in the first place so it all came naturally and üretty much effortlessly. One idea of tiny sculpture after another. I remember the flow I had, it was like an entire new planet`s nature unravelling on the paper in front of my eyes. Some of the ideas for sculptures were more daring than the others. For me, designing these small and tiny sculptures beforehand was essential. As a sculptor, I basicly had to figure how to build them as well.

Galactic Fossils – Reverse Engineered Paleontology

The sketch book was the place where these creatures were truly born—each line an exploration sketch of a life form and its structure. All the sea shells found on the beach inspired me for another tiny sculpture of a creature from an unknown exoplanetary ecosystem. And since all those creations are based on once inhabited seashells, they all feel curiously familiar. Designing the creature or the sculpture if you will has felt very sci-fi like. Space Art my way, without space rockets and space suits. Focus is on hypothetical life in space, present or past. It was like reverse engineered galactic paleontology. Only once I felt confident with the the design and the anatomy of the tiny galactic art piece did I begin the process of sculpting.

How Exactly did I Create the Galactic Fossil Sculptures?

The sculpting itself consisted of several stages. In the first step I vectorized all my hand sketches from my notebook using the following workflow. Instead of scanning the hand sketches I simply took photos of them with my cell phone and used the photographs as a backdrop in the vectorizing program. Vectorizing the line drawings was a rather simple but tidious step. The tricky part was yet to come. In order to create a 3 dimensionality in some of the sculptures I basicly had to construct the small sculpture in a 3d program. In order to be able to fold the sculptures flat and avoid welding as a manufacturing process I use a simple groove joint principle where one piece sticks to another and holds together by friction without need of fixing. Exactly this part was a bit tidious to design since the tolerances for laser cutting of the individual building pieces had to be thought thru precisly.

Coating and Finishing the Tiny Sculptures

Laser ray burns certain amount of material away as it is, which has to be considered when calculating which corners of the piece have to be tight enough to hold together. I learned as well that some lasering machines tend to put microscopic radius where you strictly put a 90 degree angled lines. After receiving the lasered pieces I have chosen the spray paint tones and cated them with a matte finish. Most of them got beige, black or white finish to match with most of the shells. When the coating dried I connected the sculpted base with the chosen sea shell. I used neutral tinted sylicone for this as it somewhat resembles the fluid formed life forms living inside those shells. I kept the connection rather insisible as it wasn´t ment to be the sculptural part of the object. The connecting mass is often visible. This is basicly how tiny sculptures called "Galactic Fossils" have been created.

How Tiny Sculptures integrate in my previous Sculptural Work?

Some of them look less anatomic and rather angular, but I am more than happy with that design. It integrates very well into my previous sculptural work where I tried to avoid bionic and fluidic forms. Just think of the Nebular Attractor or Gravitar, some of my most favorite pieces are very charismatic thanks to their strictly angular shapes.

Unussual Fantasy Collection

This shift in my work, from outer space to the sea, has opened up a whole new sculptural chapter for me. Sculptural miniatures and path to creating them resemble a precision work of a juweler. It also demands an imagination of an evolutionary scientist. With all this comes my recommendation to all sculptors out there. Inspiration can come from anywhere—whether from the infinity of the Universe or the finite nature right here on Earth. In blending the real with the imagined, these sculptures are meant to evoke the sense of curiosity and fascination for space and paleontology that inspired me to create them. Experience an unussual fantasy collection of tiny sculptures that capture the essence of sea shore life on an imaginary planet.

Peter von Hauerland