Friday, July 25, 2014

Something for the Home!

This PCAGOE challenge was about home decor. A very wide range of ideas can apply to this criteria. I decided to show off a bowl I just finished. I had made the shell, the genesis of the bowl some time this winter but it wasn't finished.
I usually know what I want a bowl to look like when I start but this one was an experiment with liquid clay and fabric. I had tried this with various fabric not knowing how they would react to the clay or the heat.
Over the last few months, the bowl progressed to its now finished state. The fabric is a satin polyester, very pale pink with some darker bits here and there. When I saw it in the remnants pile it reminded me of the petals of a peony. It wouldn't be anything I'd like to wear, just not my style but I liked it anyway. Applying liquid clay to fabric is fairly straightforward, it's like paper mache only with clay. It does use up a lot of clay. I added a base to the bottom of the flower. I decided to embroider some dyed hemp cord to look like lines and then I added the bone and glass beads to give the cords some weight. It still didn't look finished. I strategically added inks to look like blotches and lines in the petals. Now I am happy.
It looks like a fragile flower but in reality the fabric with the clay make a very sturdy material. I am having so much fun making a bowl a week. I have to admit that some weeks I produce more than one. They don't all work out but I learn more every time, about my Art and about myself.

2 comments:

  1. I really love how this particular fabric turned out in your bowl, and love too how you added the stamen and bowl foot to further remind one of a flower!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Beth! I imagined the bowl when I saw the fabric at the store. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

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