Everyone’s seen the yin and yang symbol before. At its most basic (and I only really know the basics), it’s meant to convey the idea that all natural forces have a corresponding opposite and cannot exist or have identity without their opposites. The traditional symbol, in black and white, references a simple example: light and darkness. Lightness, as a concept, can’t exist without darkness, and vice versa.

I started thinking about what other examples of “natural forces” could be represented visually in this form. I designed and 3D-printed a bowl that was sectioned off in the shape of the symbol, so I could play around with new representations of the yin and yang idea. I took some photos, and now it’ll make a neat decoration on my desk. My top 3 images below, extra images below that:

water, fire

earth, air

life, and death

This was 3D-printed in ceramic; fireproof up to 800°F or something like that.