Well, I have been on a flower binge lately, making big showy ones. The inspiration to make flowers is always with me as plants are some of my favorite things. I am endlessly fascinated by the shape, color and texture of flowers and leaves and my own attempts to create metal versions are pretty pale in comparison to what Mother Nature comes up with. Nonetheless... My original inspiration was from a Craftcast class by Barbara Becker Simon. It is called "Creating a BIG toggle in Metal Clay with Barbara Becker Simon" and is really wonderful--large, well-done with attention to detail and very stylized. I took some of her concepts, such as thickening the edges of the form and adding carving and came ip with this copper clay poppy. I really love it and the addition of the coral, green pearl and sparkly Swarovski crystal makes it really dramatic. I had to go out and find some clothing to go with it and I wore it to the Governor's Arts Awards dinner in February.
This one wasn't a toggle, I wanted to create an inset toggle but it went to wonky so it is just hooked on the back. So...I made another with the toggle design...
Then I wanted to make something with Hadar's Pearl Gray Steel pieces so I made a Moth Orchid...I also made a wonderful orchid with Fast Fire Bronze that came out with a fantastic patina, as well as several other larger imaginative flowers, but more on those at a later time.
