JIM WICKARD

Jim Wickard has a long and extensive background working with high quality Quartz crystals. Since the late 1970’s, he has had the fortunate opportunity of working with the Strickland family, which allowed him access to one of the rarest and finest collections of natural Quartz crystals. These minerals were mined in the 1940’s from Brazil and other parts of the world that produce high quality Quartz crystals, such as Citrine, Rutilated, Smokey, and Phantom-Veiled Quartz. As an artist, Jim was able to put some of the more precious pieces aside,

and has now been using these rare and beautiful mineral specimens to create his one of a kind QuartzArt sculptures.

Early in his career, Jim became proficient at grading the raw Quartz, and developed traditional techniques to cut and polish flawless spheres from clear optical Quartz. He then gained the skill to work with extremely large stones and eventually built his own machines to cut, polish and facet larger crystals weighing hundreds of pounds, perfecting his craftsmanship.

Over time, Jim came up with a concept that became the inspiration for
his QuartzArt. He wanted to create custom Bronze base sculptures that could hold and display the crystal, without cutting an unnatural flat bottom or edge. As he studied each mineral, he would skillfully design hand-sculpted bases using the lost wax method, a technique he taught himself, which properly featured the mineral using its natural shape and contours. Jim then gives the sculptures a gentle patina finish, and brings the mineral to life by highlighting it with LED lights. Each QuartzArt sculpture is designed for the crystal mineral to be removed, held, then easily set back into its base.

The sculpture pieces you see before you represent a culmination of over 40 years of working hands on with some of the finest crystal pieces in the world, and an inspired vision of how to showcase their enchanting beauty. It is Jim’s artistic vision, experience, and his attention to detail that make his exquisite natural sculptures unique.