"Crystals, brightly" by Ruth E. Steinback

My third completed challenge picture! The concept behind this ties into an idea discovered while touring ships and museums in the Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) area on vacation with my dad this past summer. The older wooden ships would sometimes have glass 'crystals' set into the deck as sources of light. The flat top sat smoothly into the deck, so it was water tight and not a tripping hazard, but caught the light and sent it through the facets of the lower side and into the cabins below. When natural light was available I expect that it was a much safer way to light the dark and often cramped cabin spaces than with open flames. We didn't see any in action, but we did see the glass crystals themselves in display cases. I thought they were really cool!

I worked on this entirely between January 18 and January 31 2008 which is crazy-fast for me.  I wanted to try doing the classic "fantasy cave lit by magic crystals" scenario but instead use the same natural principles the ship's crafters relied on. It was certainly a complex image to do but it makes me giddy to see how well it turned out.

[ Eee!  This was featured in the March 2008 edition of the EMG-ZINE: http://www.emg-zine.com/ ! ]