One beautiful late afternoon just after sunset, Sandy and I took a walk down by the shore at Kamaole 1 in South Kihei. The cloud patches in the sky were lit up with color, like dabs of paint on a light blue canvas. The patches of color ranged from bright yellow-gold, to oranges, to reds, to shades of violet. The water was relatively calm with a slight chop that resulted in staccato reflections of the colors in the sky. The sky colors reminded me of some of Sandy’s pattern bars that were made with similar colors. As we walked admiring the colors of the sky and the reflections in the water, a sea turtle popped his head above the water. It was for 5 seconds or so, but he looked like he was wearing a multicolored cloak. That confluence of events gave us inspiration for a turtle motif.
The design that we came up with is to use pattern bars to create the body of the turtle. We shaped pattern bars to form the oval body of the turtle. We used glass colors from that inspirational sunset as well as other color combinations. For the head and flippers (front and back), Sandy formed them using green glass. The turtle body, head, and flippers were then placed on light blue glass, into the kiln, and fused into a single glass piece. The photos attached are samples of the result. As seen in the photos, we also applied the approach to create abstract fish.
Our initial intention is to use these motifs on some of Sandy’s smaller items… namely night lights and small (5 inch) dishes. We will be exposing these to the public this coming weekend “under the Banyan Tree” in Lahaina. What do you think of them?? Let us know. Also, we are calling the turtle motif “Mele Honu” which is Hawaiian for “Merry Sea Turtle”. We haven’t given the name of the motif a lot of thought. Do you have a suggestion?? What about for the fish? I’m wondering if we ought to have a “contest” for the best name. What are your thoughts on that? Maybe we should link it to being a registered “fan” of Art to Harmony. Oh by the way, we could really use your support in “liking” Art to Harmony. It would be very helpful on our Facebook standing. For your convenience, the Art to Harmony Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/SandraLercari .
Mahalo
Bob