Skip to main content

Mandalas



Mandalas have been on my mind a lot lately.  
Struggling to find my truth.  I find making these in the studio calms me.
Vitreous enamel, steel, and silver.
Silver and copper ring
Even though I knew that hard solder melts at 1450 degrees I still had to try enameling the copper.  In theory the solder should not have run.  If I only took it out of the kiln a minute sooner this may not have happened.
A total melt down but I love that color!  :)
Vitreous enamel, copper, and 22k gold leaf
My intention for the above mandala was a ring.  The challenge was difficult but I managed to make it.
Vitreous enamel, copper, 22K gold leaf, and silver
I feel myself pivoting once again and feeling the need to create amulets and talismans but in sculpture form.

Each person's life is like a mandala - vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life...everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening.

~Pema Chodron

Namaste
Kalaya

Comments

  1. Cool. Shame the ring didn't work out in the kiln but that enamel colour is very nice!. I've yet to try enamelling anything I've soldered. I did see some enamels with a low firing temp which I might try when I get round to having a go :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Merci Tracy! Using white, blue, and black are my favorite colors at the moment. I've successfully torch fired enameled using hard solder. I want to avoid using eutectic or IT solder. I've heard so many bad stories with it so it's cold connection or hard solder for me. :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

I would love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

The Risk to Bloom

It all started with an acorn button and grew from there. In an earlier post I mentioned this button swap blog hop, that I am participating in, and how I was immediately drawn to the acorn button.  Every day I would hold it in my hand, feel its essence, exam it, and then put it down.  This lasted for about 2 weeks. Then I remembered I had etched an oak tree on to brass when making buttons for my partner Kylie of Lotus Out Loud .  And... so begins the journey of creating something with this wonderful acorn button, which only started yesterday. Haha!  Etched brass was copper riveted to a piece of oak.  Merci beaucoup Papi for finding some oak!   I am using what Jesse taught me in his workshop .  It was the first time trying his technique.  It worked beautifully! The riveted brass was then captured with a piece of pierced copper. Voila! And then the day came  when the risk to remain tight in...

Wabi-Sabiness

Hola everyone! New Orleans is hunkering down because we are about to get "Wintry Mix".  Whatever that means and in south Louisiana we just do not know how to drive on ice and so great havoc ensues.  The city has decided to shut down.  I know...it's some crazy stuff down here! Anyways... my mother saw some stacking rings I made a couple of weeks ago and requested a set.  So I sat in my studio and thought about texture and a word I wanted to inscribe.  I meditated, sitting there in my chair, and spinning myself in circles until I got dizzy and had to stop.  Oh wait...I digress. Back to the subject. My mind has been preoccupied with wabi-sabi lately and I thought that this is just befitting.  My mom is totally sabi!!! I inscribed the word sabi inside of the silver ring and thus began my journey. Sabi means (in the most simplistic definition)  the beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impe...

Helloooo...Is Anyone Out There?

Yes I know.  I have been off the blogger for awhile.  I swear I've been working!  ;) I have been busy trying to find my own path and I think I have finally found it. Ha!  A lot of "I"'s in that sentance.   So that being said, what exactly have I been doing? Participated in an Upcycle show at RHINO Gallery. In this show we were to use at least 75% recycled material.  This piece was  inspired by the 43 students of Ayotzinapa that were taken on September 27, 2014 and presumbly met a violent death at the hands of corrupt officials and a drug gang. . The initials of all 43 students were etched into the .38 caliber casing. I cried after comleting the piece.  It was so powerful to me. Ghosts   Designed and made earrings. Astro Earrings Sugar Skulls Did a commission. Comission Annnd made one big pendant. Louisiana Opal, sponge coral (grandma's), oxidized silver, 14KY, 22KY Am I having fun yet? ...