Psyche Beaded
DANIELLE GU
Major: Business and Art History
Genre/Medium: Glass Beads, Copper Wire, Wood
About the work: My project is a beaded sculpture of the Psyche spacecraft, mounted on top of a hollow wooden block. In creating this project, I wanted to challenge myself to create a sculpture out of a new medium. I have worked with beads in the past, especially in jewelry, but I knew that sculpture and 3D forms would provide a different challenge.
As I began this sculpture, I started with the 3D cube in the center, which contains the thrusters, sun sensor, X-Band High Gain antenna, and more on the real spacecraft. I used a peyote stitch technique and created two halves of the cube that I later stitched together. Then, I created two solar arrays out of chrome and silver bugle beads that I attached through the middle of the cube, creating the spacecraft. Finally, I placed the spacecraft on a wire prong on top of the wooden cube, completing the sculpture! Throughout the process, I also consulted several diagrams of the spacecraft to build accurate proportions into the final product.