Hi, my name is Gary Burley. 16 months ago, I started a project so complex and so expensive that I couldn’t see everything coming together and actually working. What happened blew my mind.
I bought a 200lb plate of Aluminium and started making a table base for my clay creations. I was going to make a coral reef table out of clay. All the fired creations waiting to be painted in resin-friendly paint, including all the creatures I used to know in a marine tank, all the colors, all the fishes, and the pale blond sand of a tropical rockpool.
At the end of 16 months, I would have knowledge of a project so complex it was frightening, a table that weighed a staggering 350lbs, and a receipt for a handcrafted table that has cost me a 5 figure number, and most of my sold belongings to pay for it and a table that will never be bought even for a 6 figure number… The world’s only coral reef table that looks like a reef in a bubble of seawater.
I can’t believe I wake up to this every morning. Hope you enjoy.
The finished table with a rippled water effect on the resin
The table before firing and painting
Clay coral unpainted
Clay coral fired in the oven
An island is painted, sand dunes aren’t yet
The transition
My metal signature in the centre
The beautiful diorama before the resin pour
A bubble of water with a reef in it before it was finished
The finished table
The rounded resin edge
The light from the window showing the ripples
Close up of the finished table
Clams, lobsters, octopus, starfish, sponges, anemones, shells, etc.
The 8cm thick edge
My signature under ‘water’
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