Art Imitating Art...

Whilst spring cleaning my study last week I came across some leaflets from a long forgotten visit to Barcelona back in 2002. At the time it was a rather poignant trip since it took place over the mothers day weekend and I'd lost my mum 6 weeks earlier. I was in two minds as to whether to even go but as it turned out it was the best thing I could have done. Barcelona is a joyful city and a complete assault on the senses for anyone with a love of culture and art with so much to see, including the wonderful medieval quarter...

The fabulous Boqueria market...

And probably most famously the distinctive Catalan Modernist architecture of Antoni Gaudi who integrated crafts like ceramics, stained glass, wrought iron and carpentry into his designs as  here at the Casa Batllo

 

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And the Sagrada Familia

Gaudi introduced a new technique to the treatment of materials called trencadís which used waste ceramic pieces in mosaics like these in Parc Quell...

As you've probably guessed I became totally distracted looking at these souvenirs are started thinking about how I could use this as inspiration for my own work. Having resisted the urge to break up the china in the house to make real mosaics I managed to grab a few minutes in a busy schedule to play around with getting a mosaic effect from clay.

Whilst I wanted to try a relatively authentic process by layering small pieces of clay onto a base, I was also aware that mosaic work is a slow process so I decided to try carving the clay to look like a mosaic as well just for comparison. In the end it wasn't that much quicker as it was quite difficult to get the pieces to look authentic...my brain seemed to want to make it too orderly.

Unfortunately I forgot to take any photo's of the making process but here are a couple of pendants I made - one layered and one carved...can you tell which is which.?

This is another piece which has already been bisque fired and glazed ready for it's second firing. I'd got into the swing of it a bit with this one and was a bit less heavy handing cleaning up so the pieces fit more closely.

I used different types of glaze on each one and some worked better than others but that's all part of the learning curve.  And this is how they finished up - maybe not exactly Gaudi-esque but I like them and I think there is mileage to develop the style further so I shall continue to play.

And of course - any I don't like I can smash up and use to make a new line of Trencadis components!

Has any of your work been influenced by your travels to foreign climes - we'd love to hear from you if it has.

Lesley

The Gossiping Goddess