Crater Metallic
Minh Nguyen
January 16th, 2026
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Genre/Medium: Ceramics, Acrylic Paint
About the work:
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.
Project Details: Crater Metallic
