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RE: Dogwood Mosaic Comes Alive Through the Glazing Phase
Thanks a lot for sharing your process! I'm always quite impressed with artisan artists, it feels so real, the amount of labour that you put in your work is impressive. I can only imagine what it feels like if you work on a piece on a span of weeks (?) and seeing the end result: it has been a gradual process, so it's not a 'sudden' end result - are you still very critical at that point since gradual also means you've been editing and editing for a while? Or is there a point in the process it really feels finished to you? Can you immediately tap in the fact that you 'once' started from zero and this what you made?
Just curious and looking forward to seeing what it will look like when finished :-)
Hi @soyrosa, these are really great questions! Most of the pieces I do span several months and even a tiny piece like this one was stretched out over 2 months because I'm always juggling several projects and can't just do one at a time. This works well with ceramics given the frequent waiting periods of drying, firing time and allows for decision making to happen in an organic well-considered way.
This also helps the whole critical issue. Making the piece over a long period of time can go 2 ways - either I can gradually love it and watch it coming together or I can decide to remake parts during the process because I don't like how it's working. This is always at my own expense and unfortunately very time consuming, yet I always do it if needed because I can't live with shipping a piece that I don't feel good about. It helps too that I work with my partner who is an artist with a really great eye. Very often we pull the each other over to look at a piece one of us is making to help assess how things are working. Generally by the time the piece is finished I feel good about it. If not I keep reworking it until I do!
Often deadlines are tight and we have to simply do the very best possible within the timeframe but usually it's ok. For the most part having 25 years of doing this under my belt has helped me to make peace with the natural process of what I'm making. Projects rarely come out as I plan but usually something else that's good comes forth.
Thanks for your support and thoughful questions!
Thanks a lot for your elaborate answers!
You've been doing this for 25 years! Takes hat off
It's amazing you have a 'work partner' in your husband as well! It can be lonely working as an artist since we often don't work in offices, live and create very solitary. I'm glad you don't have to go through all of it alone and have easy access to a second 'eye'!
I'm interesting in following more of your process <3 Hope this one turns out the way you want it to :-)