Los Angeles Is Bursting with Crystals

Mineral crystalsareso beautiful, it’s tempting to buy them as necklaces or coffee table ornaments even thoughthey’re soNew Age-y. There’s something pretty magical about the fact that their complex facetshavegrown, underground, over the course of centuries. But what if you were walking along the street of a major city and you saw geodesic rocks growing out of the cracks and crevices— even abandoned phone booths and open pipes?

That’s the inspiration behind PaigeSmith’s project Urban Geode Street Art. Also going by the moniker “A Common Name,” Smith writes on her sitethat the geodes are made of “hand cut and folded paper or individually cast resin and configured seamlessly to fit into spaces that inspire me.” She takes the “public” part of “public art project” seriously, encouraging anyone to copy her methods. And she says artists have done so fromJordan, Turkey, Australia, South Africa, Korea, and France.

Urban Geode

(Paige Smith)

Urban Geode

(PaigeSmith)

Urban Geode

(Paige Smith)

Urban Geode

(Paige Smith)

Urban Geode

(Paige Smith)

For more on how she does it, check out this video: