Thursday, January 23, 2014

February Clay Challenge Met!

Challenges can be, well, challenging! And it isn't always where you think the challenge lies. I am surprised by this often. This month, the PCAGOE Challenge was to make a piece of Wall Art. At first, I couldn't make up my mind but finally settled on inspiration from 2 sources. Glass artist, Linda Lichtman makes these glass panels attached within a frame. She uses spirals of various colors. That got my ideas flowing because I love the look and translucency of colored translucent polymer. Then I added to this the designs I found in Pieced Symbols, Quilt Blocks from the Global Village by  Myrah Brown Green. Her quilts are based on various sacred symbols from around the world and are quite beautiful. I chose 6 designs that spoke to me,
my journey as a person and an artist and melded the glass and quilts together.
The challenges were: how to make the design on top of the stained polymer so that the stained glass effect would still be apparent, how to construct the piece so the tiles would stay in line and "floating" as well. I used an old frame, painted it to resemble weathered wood, the type you see on the beach. I always see lots of blues in those pieces of wood. Then using wire, I attached the tiles to the frame. It was fun to do and fun to go through the construction process.
Was this challenge any different? Did I learn new techniques, push my own "crafting" envelope? You bet! I thought that making the design like a quilt would be difficult. It wasn't. It was time consuming but not difficult. My best lesson was the actual construction of the frame, the painting effect I was going for and the humility felt when things didn't work out the way I had planned. They worked out better and that always makes me feel very small but so very much at peace.
The piece will hang from my kitchen window where I have no curtains and will catch the morning sun as I make my toast and tea.

2 comments:

  1. I love reading about how this came together. I can see the glass and quilt influences, yet you have made them your own. I love the way the modern graphic designs of the clay pieces contrast the traditional frame. Great job!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Marie,
      Those words mean a lot to me. I have visions of making beautiful quilts and I think that creating them in clay first lets them sink into my "muscle memory". Quilting is a whole other spatial concept than clay but somehow they are related.

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