Waterlilies


 



This one is a present which is nearly finished. It's in a frame now, and is merely waiting on me to choose a background color scheme (if any?!), but in the meantime here are some progress shots. 

I always think its amazing what gets left out of a visual work. There are infinite possible paths to take in a given piece, even when you start from a simple concept. I had a set of design parameters- the size, the material, the motif for the center, the overall tastes of the person I was making this for. The choice that I got held up on for this one was the border. I spent a lot of time tracing a quarter inside a square and making tiny little 1.5" sketches.  The challenge with a cut paper circle is how to attach it to the outer edges, while retaining the intrinsic circleness. 



In the two concept sketches I thought I'd narrowed in on, I was feeling a  Frank Lloyd Wright, William Morris thing and ended up with a faux-Asian hand cuts look and something that was pretty, but distracting and also not at all like the (male) person I was giving this to.  Since the design was botanical, with flowers it felt better to go more geometric and simple with the edges. But I got stuck for a while, just turning over ideas and not getting very far. 

Finally inspiration struck when i walked past a favorite hanging lamp in my neighborhood, and I was able to get to work. Here are process shots:


 My solution:


hexagons. 




In progress




Detail shot
 




Final piece. 

Now all that's left is the question of background. Colors or no? 

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