Commission Completed 2

This piece is the second commission sculpture I completed for a client using her mother's china.  You can scroll down inside this blog to see photographs of the first piece.  I love how the two are completely different, yet, using the same materials.  In this piece I used 2 rows of glass beads at the neckline, I have never done this before.  I like the effect and will likely use this idea again.   Let me know what you think about the two pieces and how I used the china.......

Commission Completed

I was so excited to be contacted in June by a client to create two sculptures using her mother's china.  The china had been passed down to my client and she wanted to commemorate her mother by creating a sculpture.  She generously also commissioned a second sculpture for her sister-in-law.  The challenge for me was to create two unique pieces using the same materials.  The china was mostly white with 2-3 pink roses per plate.  The stems of the roses are in a gray/black.  We agreed from the beginning that I would use pink or white beads at the neckline, however, when I was working with the china, I suggested we consider using black faceted glass beads.  The client agreed and now you see the result.  I am thrilled- there are so many things that I like about this piece.  I am delighted with how it turned out and hope that the piece will serve as a beautiful reminder to the client of her mother.

Mosaics Restoration in Italy

A wonderful website and daily email has been introduced to me by my dear friend and ardent supporter, Peggy Corrao.  When you sign up for the daily email, a treat arrives in your 'in' box each morning with something wonderful from Italy.  Today's email is a short article about an incredible mosaic restoration project currently taking place at a Villa in Sicily.  Click on the link below for the article and more pictures. 

Link to Italian Notebook Website

The New Bermuda

I created this piece using Italian and Mexican smalti.  The Italian smalti are the black and gold pieces, the Mexican smalti are the white pieces in the background.  I was experimenting at the time with creating depth and texture simply by the way the tile was cut and how/where it was laid.  I am so proud of how the hair turned out, the curls of the Queen's hair are created solely by the cut of the tile and their placement.  Using the same tile, I created the outline of her face, the eye, the profile of the nose and the mouth. Traditionally, color is relied upon to create these distinctions.  Suffice to say, this was a very difficult piece to create.

At the time I created this piece, Bermuda was undergoing some political and social changes that I wanted to address in my artwork.  The message I was trying to portray here is that our Premier at the time was not going to be happy until everyone, including the Queen, was Black.  His tagline on everything was 'The New Bermuda'.  Sadly, this Premier did not address the needs/concerns of the balance of the population of Bermuda.  A leader should be concerned with his/her entire constituancy. 

This piece was also recently re-photographed.  I am delighted with the photographer's ability to capture the details of this piece, the parts that to me, make it so enjoyable. 

Yummi Tribe Woman

I am so happy that I found a photographer in Carbondale who has the right indoor lights to photograph my mosaics up close and personal!  I have tried repeatedly to photograph this piece under different settings.  I struggled with light reflecting off the glass, whether it was flash or sunlight.  I think they did a great job and have fallen in love with this piece all over again!

Sneak Preview to my latest newsletter, coming out this week....

http://play.goldmail.com/0h5bgc9vu03y

Miss Charlston

Miss Charlston

I have a friend who recently told me a story.  The gist of the story was about how we can be so close to something happening, even danger, and have it only skirt us.  She shared about how her grandmother was passing through her dining room and just as she had cleared where the china cabinet was, it fell over onto the floor without warning; missing the grandmother by only a few inches.  While I was relieved to hear that the grandmother was unharmed, my next question was what had she done with the broken china!?! 

We are staying with friends in upstate NY and our hostess shared about how she had tripped in the butler's pantry and had broken 5 plates, beautiful ivory with a dark green ivy trim.  I have the perfect green bead that would have looked lovely with the ivy on the trim.  Sadly, they threw the broken plates away. 

I am currently working on 2 sculptures as a commission from a collector who is using her mother's china to create the sculptures.  While it is a beautiful china, the collector doesn't use it and wants to repurpose the pieces into a beautiful sculpture to remember her mother.  How wonderful.

Miss Charlston was created to use simply 3 broken plates my mother found at great store in Ft. Worth, Dishes from the Past.  They have just about every conceivable pattern of china and act as a replacement service.  The best part of the store, in the very back corner, is a 'broken shelf'.  All the plates on the shelf have been damaged in some way.  I scored 10 plates there on my last visit. 

The moral to the story- don't throw your broken plates away!  Send them to me!!