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September 3, 2025 Dear studio friends, I just completed a commissioned sculpture for National Gypsum, and it was one of the most interesting projects I've worked on. National Gypsum is a building products manufacturer that quarries gypsum rock to produce wallboard, moulding plaster, and other building materials—they commissioned the sculpture to commemorate their centennial anniversary. The piece, titled "Building Stories," now lives in their corporate headquarters lobby in Charlotte, NC, combining raw gypsum rocks from eight of their quarries with 100 layers of interlocking plaster. I've put together an archive of the entire process on my website—from initial research and plant visits through design development and studio construction. The page isn't public yet, as final photos won’t be ready for a month or so, but you can visit the archive directly through the link below. Behind the Scenes: “Building Stories” If you're curious about what goes into a commissioned work, I hope you'll find this behind-the-scenes documentation interesting. Working with materials that connect directly to an industrial process, a company's century-long story, and geological deposits dating back 340 million years felt genuinely purposeful in a way I hadn't expected. The research into deep time—learning how these gypsum formations developed across different geological epochs—added layers of meaning to the stories contained in the piece. More updates soon, including installation and final photos! ~Lydia
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