This lid watered with a sassy red, white and purple millefiori cane. I was playing with the end of a purple and white bull's eye cane and smooshed it into a strip. I then rolled this into a "ribbon" rose and glued it to the center. I added fuchsia clay for the rim and decided to give the edge around the lid's cane slice a textured, purple border. Just before trimming off the excess clay, I noticed one edge was delicately ruffled. It was then I decided to bend the rest of the edges to see what it would look like. I was so pleased with the effect, that I left it intact. Let this be a lesson to all the budding artists out there or those who recognize your inner artist, but suffer from pangs of doubt about your work. As much as I'd like to say that everything I do is the result of a vision followed by careful execution, that is seldom the case when I sit to create. While there are occasionally pieces that fall under this concept, much of what I do starts out with a color, shape, or texture in mind. I let the work take me where it will. As an artist, it's not uncommon to dislike or even loath something I made. However, I find the pieces I am most pleased with upon their completion are the unexpected ones. The works that didn't come out like I had envisioned or the projects that I started with no preconceived expectations, but tackled with an attitude of playfulness. Know that's it's okay to veer from a path and even make mistakes. Sometimes those become the pieces you love the most!
Very Cool, Lisa! And very true words! Some of my favorite creations were actually mistakes that came out with a really cool but totally unplanned effect. How do you do the "wrinkles" in the border? Do you use a tool or do you scrunch the clay?
Posted by: KC | 02/25/2012 at 07:33 AM