Zephyr takes its name from the gentle west wind of Greek mythology, often associated with the arrival of spring and the quiet forces that shape the natural world. I wanted the sculpture to capture something of that invisible movement, creating a figure that appears almost weightless, as though carried effortlessly on the breeze.

The work began with a handful of hornbeam leaves that I gathered and carefully dried in a press. Each leaf was then used to create a rubber mould before being cast in epoxy. Using these individual cast leaves, I slowly constructed the sculpture by hand, building it leaf by leaf. Because of its delicate nature, the work had to be created in several sections before being assembled into the finished form.

Once the original sculpture was complete, it was sent to the foundry where a rubber mould was taken to produce a wax replica. The final bronze was then cast using the traditional lost wax process, preserving every vein and subtle texture of the original hornbeam leaves.

I enjoy the contrast between the fragility of a single leaf and the permanence of bronze.