An “odalisque” 2006
What if I were to interupt the normal flow of things a little bit. When I was writing my second post on the holy grail for Watch me create this was the first result.
I am letting an inner personal perspective shine….read with caution;
This is a touchy subject. We are talking about deep secrets. Do we tell people how we do the things we do? Or, do we keep it a secret? Do we reveal technique?
I am addicted to celebrating the passion in art. As soon as I learn something, I see another Artist’s work, and I see how they could benefit from a technique, or medium. We only get to be here and see it for so long. The more; the MORE! More is good.
On with the story to the grail…
From 1991-1994 (Fall) my emphasis with art was painting. I was a landscape painter. I lived up North and studied the landscape, and painted when I was not working. The Professor in painting at my University and I did not seam to get along, and that is really why I went into sculpture. I did have good print making Instructors, but I knew the digital world would take that over some day. (And, now with my decals; there is some irony to that thought.) Now, for all I know, that Painting Professor may have known that painting was wrong for me, and sculpture is where I should be, and he just had a funny way of expressing that? One can only speculate. He intimidated me. The move to sculpture was a little bit of a head game. It was still dominated by men, and I was reminded of that often.
Ceramics turned my head another direction. I could feel the art in my hands. It was a magical discovery. Sculpting the images I would draw before came natural to me. I still had the same inspirations, and now I could create little environments for a sculpture, and the art became a part of life.
Studying ceramics was about studying mediums with different viscosity, and malliability. How to best control the medium in a number of ways. Knowing that I could take the raw elements and make art with them, was really neat to me. Science becomes a part of the creation process in the Clay workers world. Mixing clay bodies, and glazes is an incredible discovery. Being able to know what metals mix what colors, at what temperature; controlling the elements with heat, and flame. We begin to understand all of these chemical reactions.
Creating for the sake of celebrating something I am passionate about. That is why I was there in Art school. So, am I practical? Can I earn the living? I needed to find inspiration in some kind of product line to keep the overhead covered.
Brain stormed that thought for too many years…;
Today I am working with glass. I have saved all of my images of my glass beads in a digital format. Filed them by the month for the last 2-1/2 years. I had thoughts of creating posters, and making two dimensional art with the images. I played around in photoshop and manipulated photographs. Cropping my people from my beads has been a side job commitment. Using what I got!
grail?
My old Ceramics Instructor developed a technically advanced enamel decal process in the early 2000’s. I was fascinated with the process. I just couldn’t afford it. I held onto the idea and kept collecting imagery from my art. I Finally started The enamel decal tests in Winter 2007/2008. The process with lampwork glass works! I can now fuse my images to the surface of the glass.
Another wonderful thing, I found my potential product line. I can sell my images for a reasonable price, and boogie down beads could be done up to its full potential. I think bead makers out there could make some rockin’ bead designs with my decals.
I feel like I found a way to use the images I create in a practical way. Not much of my art had a practicle purpose before beads, and now decals! I am super inspired to create them! Glass enamel decals have been used for hundreds of years. It was a secret for a long time in the glass world in Sweeden (1700’s). The furnace glass workers were fusing decal enamel to the outside of the vases, and sculpture they made. using the enamel images they were able to create very detailed surface imagery that would be a secret glass technique. I was so inspired to hear what they named this process; “the holy grail!”
I learned that AFTER I figured it out in the flame….; it came to me personally; a holy grail of inspiration.
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Posted by Sheila Morley 
www.SheilaMorley.com 