This piece is a decorative plate modeled after one of the impact craters on the surface of Psyche. The plate has a blue undertone, with purple dry brushing on the groves as a highlight, and blue wet brushing to exaggerate the depth of the channels.
This piece is a decorative plate modeled after one of the impact craters on the surface of Psyche. The plate has a blue undertone, with purple dry brushing on the groves as a highlight, and blue wet brushing to exaggerate the depth of the channels.
This piece is a decorative plate modeled after one of the impact craters on the surface of Psyche. The plate has a blue undertone, with purple dry brushing on the groves as a highlight, and blue wet brushing to exaggerate the depth of the channels.
This piece is a decorative plate modeled after one of the impact craters on the surface of Psyche. The plate has a blue undertone, with purple dry brushing on the groves as a highlight, and blue wet brushing to exaggerate the depth of the channels.
This piece is a decorative plate modeled after one of the impact craters on the surface of Psyche. The plate has a blue undertone, with purple dry brushing on the groves as a highlight, and blue wet brushing to exaggerate the depth of the channels.
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Crater

Minh Nguyen

January 16th, 2026
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Genre/Medium: Ceramics, Acrylic Paint
About the work:

This piece is part of a set of 2, with each demonstrating the material make up of the asteroid. The ceramic plate is modeled after the bigger crater on the asteroid. Since Psyche is 30-60% metal, the ceramic plate, representing the rock make up would be half of the total proportion. The two pieces would demonstrate the metal rich composition of the piece. The cold undertone was inspired by the artistic rendition of Psyche, and the light purple dry brushing emphasizes the surface textures of the impact crater.

The goal of this two part project is to demonstrate one of the peculiarities of this asteroid, which is its high metal constitution. The initial inspiration for the material choice of Psyche Crater, Metal (and its predecessor) is the material composition of the Psyche asteroid itself. The piece is meant to juxtapose its companion piece, the raw and dull metallic shine highlights the various handcrafted surface textures. The aluminum sheet was water-jetted and sand blasted to create the coarse surface texture of the ejecta rays. Initially, a hydraulic press and stamps were considered for the shaping and texturing of the piece, but I decided against it because it would have lost the “handmade” quality that I want to put into the piece. The reciprocal of the sand-blasted ejecta rays was hand chiseled with a splitting chisel. The smaller craters nested inside the piece were formed using punches and a hammer. Through several layers of hammering and several gauges of punches, the positive and negative curvatures of the craters came into shape. The softness of aluminum played a great part in the feasibility of this sculpture, else my wrist would have given out several times during the hammering. The crowns of the secondary craters catch and reflect light to make light rays dance off the peak of the craters.

View the Full Project

Date Added: 01-16-2026
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Minh Nguyen - Psyche Inspired

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