Friday, April 2, 2010

Paisley Box


paisley box
Originally uploaded by Arrowdale Art Studio
At first glance you see the ruffles, then you look again and realize they're clay, too! This wonderful little clay box by Cindy Matthews is another entry in PCAGOE's April Challenge "Inspired by Fabric." Cindy joined the PCAGOE this past December and has been just a joy to have around. Also being one of 6 daughters, I've always felt a kindship with her - I'm the oldest of 6 and she's the youngest. lol Cindy's work is so clever. This little box with the paisley is just wonderful and warm and her shop also has polymer jewelry and adorable sculpted polymer purses. She is currently working on one of a barn that is close to my heart being a Minnesota farm girl myself. You can take a closer look at Cindy's shop HERE or visit her blog at http://presby2.xanga.com.

Cindy's lovely paisley box is the second item that I'm featuring this week as part of the ongoing PCAGOE vote. Remember, voting is going on now through April 7 and 5 lucky voters will receive a wonderful prize made by the wonderful artist in our guild. If you haven't voted yet, please vote HERE.




Today is my calm before the storm post wise. I don't have a ton to show but have so many projects in the works! Plus I'm already thinking of what I will be planning for the May PCAGOE challenge which is historical/historical events. Ok - above is two of my art prints. "Armadillos Dance" I designed several years ago and the original is in cut layered art paper. "Churchill 2009" was made for the graduating senior class of the Churchill high school band last spring. I've been wanting to do similar designs in polymer clay, with layers and shading - with backgrounds that have elements of mokume gane, image transfers, and mica shifts and embellished key elements in the 'realistic' images on the ends of each transformation. Though there is many many potential ideas running through my head, I thought I would pull one from my family history. My mother's maiden name is Catlin and a distant relation to the painter George Catlin, who did wonderful painting of Native Americans. My idea is to take and develop a new design that goes from a buffalo to a native american - possibly based on one of George Catlin's paintings - then fill the changing shades of the background with faint images, mica shifts in cultural patterns, etc etc. It'll be a rather large wall sculpture and done in tiles, layered and grouted together on a base suitable for hanging. It's something I've been wanting to do for some time and still have the details to work out in my head, but I welcome any advise or input!

Thank you all!

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much, Deb - this is just so wonderfully done. :) I appreciate it more than I can say. I put a lot of "me" into this box and I'm glad you like it.

    As for your future piece - what kind of canvas will you use? I've used canvas board to adhere pieces to, small ones though, that I could pop right into the oven. The clay sticks without any help. At first I thought I'd need liquid clay, but that just makes it messy! But with a large piece like yours, you'll have to bake each element and then attach it to the board. I suggest baking the elements between two tiles if you want them to remain flat. :)

    Hugs - and thanks again!

    me<><

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  2. Thank you Cindy and thanks for the suggestions! I'm not sure what kind of backing I'll be using - I wanted something fairly rigid and something I can attach hanging elements, too. I'll have to do a bit of research but will probably start out with a thin piece of plywood - though I've thought about using flexiglass, too.

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