Tenderness — Sculptural Miniature

Tenderness is a small form of two figures pressed close together, their heads touching temple to temple, one arm folded around the other. The anatomy is reduced to a minimum — round featureless heads, compact rounded bodies, no detail at all — so the sculpture speaks not of particular people but of the gesture of closeness itself. The surface is covered in a warm, deep gold with an uneven, hand-laid finish: darker abrasions settle into the hollows while the raised areas gather light in soft matte highlights, giving the piece the look of a small found object of great personal value.

The sculpture is handmade — modelled, cast and gilded in layers, with no serial production involved. The distribution of the wear, the saturation of the gold and the small irregularities in the surface all arise from the hand-finishing process, so no piece ever repeats another exactly — a natural quality of handcrafted work. Its compact scale suits a desk, a bedside table, a shelf or a display cabinet, and its warm, easily read subject also makes it a fitting wedding, anniversary or engagement gift.