2008

8" x 8" | 20cm x 20cm

marble, smalti, porcelain, mother or pearl, crystal beads, seed beads

i am much happier with this one. i felt much more in sync with the materials and the environment, and my vertical is much more even and straight. i worked on expressing a more relaxed sense. i am also getting into the spirit of this series more.

to me, these pieces are kind of telling a story about the month. for this one, i was inspired by the woods around my house, that are all warm and gray this time of year. also, my oldest son's birthday is in february, so i used some amethyst colored Swarovski crystal beads in the lower right area... his birthstone is amethyst. i didn't think about that with january, as i started it after my youngest son's january birthday, and was just getting oriented with the series.

this final piece is my third attempt, and there are a couple of reasons for that:

i realized that, when i changed materials of different widths, i was creating horizontal fugas that became distracting. i did not notice that i was doing this on january, but i was.

also, i was challenged to find a shade of smalti that i felt worked harmoniously with the marbles. even the shade that i finally settled upon was worrisome to me, so i kept the smalti to a minimum.