Subrata Nath, featured ILCS Liquid Crystal artist, January 2025 - The Sea Shore Mosaic. The image depicts the stunning platelet structure of the liquid crystal blue phase observed at approximately 170.6°C during the cooling cycle from the isotropic liquid state for a stilbene derivative. The intricate layers of this structure bear a striking resemblance to the gentle waves breaking on the seashore, with each layer akin to a different stratum of pebbles, creating a beautiful and harmonious arrangement.

Haoyi Jiang, featured ILCS Liquid Crystal artist, February 2025 - The phoenix. This picture captures the magnificent spectacle of liquid crystal in its crystalline phase, a moment of pure beauty frozen in time. The phoenix, a sacred creature and potent totem in ancient Chinese mythology, symbolizes auspiciousness and fortune. In this scene, the image of a phoenix soaring between heaven and earth unfolds, its wings spread wide in graceful flight. The distant mountains, vast and majestic, mirror the wings of the phoenix, their peaks reaching toward the sky as if engaged in a silent dance with the heavens. Clouds and mist swirl around, resembling soft feathers that flutter gently—ethereal, mysterious, as though brushing the mountainside, enveloping the bird in a radiant glow. These drifting wisps, fiery in hue, are like the phoenix's feathers, tracing invisible paths in the air.

Haoyi Jiang, featured ILCS Liquid Crystal artist, March 2025 - Flower. In the crystalline phase, liquid crystals display a stunningly vibrant spectacle. The most captivating feature of the image is the radiant, starburst-like patterns that resemble miniature suns, emanating energy in all directions. The bright colors at the center gradually diffuse outward, much like sunlight piercing through clouds to illuminate the world. These radiant forms are dynamic and evocative, symbolizing vitality and creativity, imparting a sense of warmth and hope. A closer look at these radiant structures reveals their likeness to blooming flowers, glowing brilliantly under the sun’s rays. Each “flower” has a tightly packed center, with delicate, petal-like lines extending outward. These intricate shapes exhibit a natural rhythm and symmetrical beauty, akin to the elegance found in nature.

Xinyu Zhou, featured ILCS Liquid Crystal artist, April 2025 - Defects in chiral lyotropic liquid crystals. An aqueous solution of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), doped with glucose, was allowed to stand in a room-temperature oven for four days, resulting in the formation of a chiral cholesteric phase structure. Within this intricate structure, a defect emerged, potentially caused by dust or particles. Over the course of three days, this defect grew into an enchanting floral pattern, as beautifully illustrated in the accompanying figure. Just as sometimes bad things can turn into good, the imperfections arising during this experiment unexpectedly created a masterpiece of natural beauty. This is reminiscent of the Venus de Milo, whose missing arm not only adds to her aesthetic charm but also embodies a profound philosophical beauty.

Leonard Fink, featured ILCS Liquid Crystal artist, May 2025 - Colourfully textured columnar hexagonal strands. While investigating the absorption behaviour of a new benzotrithiophene-based liquid crystal in thin film, we checked the texture of the thermotropic columnar hexagonal mesophase via POM and were surprised to see these colourful strands, perfectly showcasing one example of the manifold and fascinating beauties of liquid crystal textures.

Athul Satya, featured ILCS Liquid Crystal artist, June 2025 - TB10A nematic phase texture. A polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-coated glass slide was employed as the substrate for the deposition of TB10A. The image was captured during the heating process at 155.5 °C, corresponding to the phase transition from nematic to Smectic I. The actual field of view in the TB10A POM image corresponds to a width of 200 μm.