How We Make a Glow in the Dark Sculpture: A Studio Walkthrough

Every FLY Miami Art piece starts as an idea on a sketchpad and ends as a sculpture that quietly glows under blacklight. The path between those two moments runs through a small studio at 5445 Collins Ave in Miami Beach. This is what happens inside.

Step one: the form

The artist, Facundo Yebne, begins each piece by deciding the form. Most often it is a rubber duck, scaled up well past its bath toy origin. The duck is hand sculpted from a base armature, refined over several days, and prepared for casting.

Step two: the resin pour

The cast is filled with custom resin, layer by layer, each pour given time to cure before the next. This stage looks slow because it is. A monumental piece can take a week or more before the form is fully built.

Step three: surface and color

Once cured, the surface is sanded by hand, sealed, and built up with color. Every piece carries intentional variation. No two glow in the dark sculptures from FLY Miami Art are identical, even within a series.

Step four: the UV reactive layer

The detail that makes FLY Miami Art distinct is the UV reactive layer. Pigments are folded into the final passes of color so they read as bold tone in daylight and emit a controlled glow under blacklight at night. The pigments are mixed in house and tuned to keep daytime color clean while still producing strong glow under UV.

Step five: signature and finish

Each piece is signed by Facundo on the underside or back of the work, numbered, and prepared for shipping. A Certificate of Authenticity is generated and packed with the piece.

How long it takes

A small original glow piece can move through this process in two to three weeks. A monumental wall piece or a sculpture in the UnityBeak series can take six to ten weeks depending on size and complexity. Commissions follow the same workflow with extra time built in for design conversations with the collector.

Why hand making still matters

The honest answer is the only one. Mass production cannot carry the marks of intention that make a piece feel like a person made it. The studio is small on purpose. The work is slow on purpose. That is the point.

See it in person

The studio at 5445 Collins Ave welcomes visitors by appointment. The closest public installations, UnityBeak and Proud Love on Lincoln Road, are a short walk away and free to view at any hour.

Peace. Love. Joy. Unity.