Jay Rubinstein

Sculpture / Wood Veneers • Purple Route

My mobiles are constructed out of natural wood veneers. I love suggesting shapes and connections rather than making them explicit and the fact that at a shape can be at once, a flame and a feather or a bird and a fish body for example.

Images of studio
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My Practice

I usually begin with a mental image and depending on the mobile I may make a rough model in card to see what will work. I may also make test pieces with veneer to check shape and pattern. Then I make wooden formers to produce the shape and begin to laminate the veneers under vacuum.

Finally I can assemble the piece and then begins the long difficult process of balancing and checking movement.

Tools & Materials

The tools I use most are probably the Stanley knife, the vacuum press and the jig saw. My workshop is housed in a rather narrow part of our garage so, to my wife’s fury I often spread into the rest of the space.