Grains are selected individually by the founder of OUAW.

Selection often starts with place — the location carries its own meaning before the form is even considered. A grain from Everest Base Camp. One from beneath St Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Sand collected along the route of Vasaloppet or from the desert floor of Marathon des Sables.

Beyond location, thousands of grains are examined under magnification. Most are ordinary fragments. Occasionally one stands out — a structure, symmetry or geometry that reveals something unexpected when enlarged.

Some grains take recognizable shapes: a star, a spiral, a pillar. Others are biological in origin — a fragment of an ancient sea lily or a sea urchin spine, reduced by time to the size of a grain. These are chosen because their structure tells a story that purely geological grains cannot.

Selected grains are scanned using micro-CT imaging to capture their exact three-dimensional form.

Not every grain translates well into a piece. Some are too fragile, too complex, or lose definition when enlarged. Selection therefore balances two things: what nature has shaped, and what can be successfully cast.