A diamond made entirely from carbon found in gunpowder removed from .223 Caliber Remington assault rifle ammunition purchased over the counter in Fort Worth, Texas.
glasswork in collaboration with John Sharvin & Dan Jarvis.

To prevent explosion during manufacture, gunpowder was neutralized in the chemistry laboratory of Dr. Justin Youngblood at the University of North Texas. The act of chemically neutralizing gunpowder across several months became the project’s heart, and the diamond a byproduct of this process, as documented in the video We Cover America.

excerpt from We Cover America, video documentation of the Gunpowder Diamond

installation view at the Columbus Museum of Art

Gunpowder Diamond forms part of Tendered Currency, an installation exploring perceived value, U.S. culture, alchemy, and authenticity. Both diamonds and art are symbols of scarcity, emotion, investment, luxury, taste and exertion; both the diamond and art economies rely on cheap labor, careful manipulation of supply, and manufactured demand within insulated markets. As capital moves with increasing velocity, value itself has become an increasingly variable and subjective denominator in society, influencing the definition of art, and what it might obtain in both cultural and economic terms. Tendered Currency collaborates with these systems to investigate what we value and how we value it.