I was approached by a friend and asked to create a wall hanging sacred heart sculpture for his partner for the holidays. The sacred heart had been an important image in her family growing up so I grabbed my sketch book and started brainstorming.

It was really fun creating the different layers of this metal sacred heart sculpture. When designing it I had no idea how the flames would read and was worried that it might look too busy once all the layers were assembled. After I pieced everything together and took a step back I was surprised at how cohesive the piece was! My favorite part of this particular sculpture was the grind details in the heart. I achieved this by grinding a matte background first. Then I came and ground in swirling details with another grinding wheel. When complete the different grinds caught the light in unique ways achieving greater depth in the final product. This is something I had played around with before but I felt like this was the most successful application yet! I was excited to work with this technique more in the future.

This metal sacred heart sculpture is wall hanging, made entirely of stainless steel, colored using only heat patinas, and is safe to be kept outdoors!