Sometimes the themes I am most resistant to result in the most interesting pieces. Why is that? Is it the unfamiliarity that causes me to stretch and look for more pleasing outcomes.
When I first started to work with the bamboo motif, I really didn't want to do it. There really is only one feasible way to forge it, which means not a lot of visual variety. It's not a native plant or a familiar plant. It's a bit trendy. It just wasn't in my design vocabulary. Then I got a request for it. For some reason, I couldn't say no. I had to plunge myself right into it.
I didn't have the tools for the forged version, so I tried a welded version.
That was ok, but took a lot of work- first forging, then welding, then hammering some more. So I took the plunge, set up a fullering tool, and tried the forged version.
Oh let me tell you how I moaned and groaned, swore it wouldn't work, swore it was too heavy and swore to go back to the welded version. I did the welded version again. I moaned and groaned, complained, and thought "there must be a better way." (Notice all the complaining that goes on in my work development?)
Well there is a better way, the standard way that everyone else is doing. I set up the fullering tool again, rearranged a few tools, cut some manageable sizes and broke the process down into reasonable steps. Amazingly enough, I got these results (posted here already.)
Click on each picture to see the larger version. If you want to see a discussion of how to make the forged steel bamboo, click here or go to http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9509 Scroll through the entries to get to some explanations and links to another website with photos.
I am still working on the actual commission and should finish it before Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I created a wallpiece using some of the extras, to go in the exhibit. It's photographed on the floor, a bamboo laminate floor. ( I haven't yet dedicated a wall to big-nail-photography.)
I love it. I didn't want to do it at first and now I love it. It's simple, yet there's still so much room for expression- in the simple lines, the few leaves, and the negative space.
As a part of the experimentation, I also created some of the bamboo and bamboo leaves in bronze. I'll show you those results in a few more days. I had some extra leaves to turn into these lovely forms.
Now think about it. I never would have done any of this if someone hadn't asked me to create something that I'd never done before. I never would have done any of this if I hadn't said yes and made myself follow through. I never would have tried something new and come up with something as lovely as those pieces.
The moral of the story?- Keep saying yes and then figuring out how the heck to do it.
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