Hello everyone!
Today I have a mixed media piece to share with you! This piece was created with ceramic stoneware clay, watercolor paper, ink, adhesive, pearl faux bling, and is mounted on a 1 3/4″ thick piece of cedar board.
The process to make this piece was a bit long, but worth it! First, I slab rolled a piece of B-mix clay and put it on a dry wall board. Next, I took my hand drawn heart pattern and put it on the clay and traced it, then pressed in letters, stamps and foam letters into the heart to make the words. Carefully, I cut it into pieces, but left it on the board and didn’t pick the pieces up. I let it dry in a wet room for a few days with a dry wall board on top of it. I took it out of the wet room and cleaned up all the pieces and continued to let it slowly dry for another week. All the pieces with words were carefully under glazed with dark grey and then all of it was bisque fired to cone 05. After the bisque fire, the cross was glazed with Temmoku (Amaco Potter’s Choice), the word pieces were clear glazed and it was all fired to cone 5. I used E6000 adhesive to glue my heart to the cedar board.
All the flowers were made from 140# cold press watercolor paper. I used Spellbinders Rose Creations die and rose leaf die and Heartfelt Creations classic leaves with matching stamp, and a Cheery Lynn flourish. All the flower layers were spritzed with water and then sponged with “picked raspberry”, “antique linen”, and edged with “vintage photo” Distress Ink. They were shaped while they were wet with a bone folder and stylus tool and allowed to dry before assembling into flowers. Vellum stamens were made using a McGill paper punch, faux pearls were added to the centers of each flower. The Spellbinders leaves were die cut, the Heartfelt Creations leaves were stamped onto the watercolor paper then die cut and inked with “peeled paint, mowed lawn and forest moss” Distress Ink. I used hot glue to glue all the flowers together and to glue the pieces to the cedar board. I did a “dry run” to figure out where I wanted everything before I started gluing.
This project is based on: Philippians 1:6 “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” I wanted to express how the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to complete us. First beginning at the center of our hearts, with the two things Jesus said were the most important: A relationship with God-Love God and a relationship with others -Love Others. They are connected and possible because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. All the other character qualities coming from our hearts and lived out in our lives are a result of the Holy Spirit working to complete us.
I did this project for an art show at RiverGlen Christian Church in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Here are some more photos of this project!
Have a beautiful day!
Eileen
