I realized I have only been posting pics of the mural laid out on a table. There are many other steps to the process, that are doubled since there are two balconies! So I thought I’d share a little more behind-the-scenes pics as I work through the second mural. The steps after rolling out wet clay include moving each section to the drying rack, bisque firing, and then hand painting each piece with glazes and firing a second time.

mural pieces on vented drying rack, waiting to b e bisque fired.

   

Finally making progress on the actual mural! I’m using the extruder and clay slabs to create the tile pieces. Even with all the sketches and mock-ups I’ve done, I don’t know exactly how the final piece is going to look until I actually start rolling out the clay. I have an overall plan, but the details come together throughout the process of making the work. The textures vary within each circle. The water ripples may not be as evident  when I break the design down into the geometric parts, but it was the foundation of my idea.

Mural, balcony #1

I created tons of sketches to work out various design ideas, mostly nature-inspired, renderings of clouds, branches, leaves, etc. But I was also playing around with geometric patterns.

I decided on the concentric circles pattern when I stepped outside of my studio to watch it rain one afternoon. This summer was one of the hottest on record, and the rain was rare, refreshing and inspiring. I watched the ripples as the rain fell in a puddle, and that was the moment my idea came together. The concentric circles pattern is both geometric, and representative of nature (as in the water ripples). And the circular motif is present in the architectural elements all along the Canal, as seen in the shape of the balcony.

rough rendering

My original plan was to use a combination of handmade clay tiles

Concentric Circle design

with other elements, such as glass tile, broken tile, or pebble. I gathered various samples and played around with all kinds of stuff for a few weeks. The result was, to keep it simple, stick with pebble and clay only. I’ve worked with this combo before and really like how the pebble and clay look and feel together. Its got great tactile properties, and incorporates a connection w/ nature. And…. Pebble mosaics (and architectural clay tile) from centuries ago are still intact today! can’t argue with that.