I have been using clay as a creative medium for well over thirty years now and I have been doing bead work for as long as I can remember. By the time I was a teenager I was doing small bead work things on my bell bottom jeans dragonflies and such. So doing a piece like this that is half pottery and half bead work is not a very unusual thing for me to do.
The hand modeled pottery base has a solid three dimensional sculpted in the round form, that gives this piece a sense of weight and reality that I really like. The bead work portion has a light weight airiness that gives this work a delightfully alienness that blends to form a truly impressive work of art in my opinion. I call this work "The Pollinator" and if you look closely you can see why I have chosen this name. The little floater is created out of little tiny mini seed beads and is firmly anchored in place, but looks as if he is just floating or swimming on by after having fulfilled his natural duty in his niche in an alien ecosystem.
The bead work is all created on wire in the traditional French Beaded Flower technique to make a shimmering delicate presentation that will be both eye catching and sturdy enough to last for a very long time if just a little care is taken.
The hand crafted pottery base is about 6 inches across the bottom at the widest and is approximately 6 inches tall. The over all height of this piece is 19 inches tall with the bead work in place.
I spent more than a small amount of time planning and setting things in place to get this work completed. Some of the beads I used have been in my stock of glass beads for well over 35 years and were being saved for something special and I assure you that this was the something special that they were waiting for. The bead work on this piece trembles with the slightest movement or breeze! as I look at it setting in my kitchen, it just shimmers and shines as it every so often slightly moves in the warm evening air coming through my windows.
What "The Pollinator" looks like in my kitchen |
This piece is now in a private collection in Ocean Springs, MS
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