An Art Nouveau Fireplace Mosaic For an Atlanta Home

in design •  7 years ago 

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A few years ago I received an email from a woman in Atlanta, Georgia who asked if I could create a fireplace surround for her home despite her small budget. She had saved photos of my work for 5 years while putting money aside to make her dream fireplace.

I was amazed and so touched. 5 years, wow, what an honor! I told her that we could absolutely work with her budget.

They aren’t rich by any means but value a beautiful home. Very often what I recommend for people with a small budget is to pick a few really special pieces or even just one - a piece of furniture, a rug, an accent wall of tile - rather than to spread it over a lot of “good” items. Even just one of these can “make” a room giving it mood and magnetism and far more pleasing than a room that’s fine but not at all special. Then over time you can add another element or 2 if you have the budget. Having items in your home that you really love makes all the difference.

This client was already thinking like this before contacting me. She wanted to start with the fireplace surround and then next year to add the fireplace hearth.

She sent me dimensions and her vision board with all of the colors she liked and her sources of inspiration. She is a huge fan of the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts era and so it was easy to know how to approach the aesthetic.

I started by putting together some glazes to show her. To save her money, I did this very causally and simply sent her iPhone photos of the glazes to get the idea of what she liked. Simultaneously I sent her photos of some previous work to use as a point of departure and so I could get a feel for which direction to pursue.

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She loved my Quince Tree design and wanted to use it along with some flowers from another design and her own color palette.

Here is the palette I generally use for my Quince Tree:

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So I made a small sample showing this design using the colors she chose and mailed this to her so she could make sure the glazes worked well in the room and with her home.

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Once approved, I created a drawing to the exact dimensions of the client's fireplace. I used the Poppy flowers below from another of my designs, to help me determine where the flowers should go within the field of Quince leaves. I always kept the color palette close by at every step so I could begin "see" the finished product in my mind's eye.

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This drawing serves as a cutting template as well as a guide on which to put the entire piece together before shipping it. Next I rolled out clay slabs and starting the process of cutting the tiles (leaves and flowers):

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Once I had cut and fired some of the tiles, I began glazing. Often I get so involved in a project that I completely forget to take photos and with this one, I have nothing to show of the glazing or firing. So, we skip ahead to the stage when I began to put all of the cut, fired, glazed, and fired tiles all together:

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Something that came up during glazing is how dark or light the flowers should be. I left them until the end so I could see them against the rest of the piece:

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The client had chosen a yellow center inside each flower but once I'd made them I thought the yellow didn't work as well as we'd hoped. She agreed so I remade the flowers.

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Once remade I aimed for a mix of light, medium and dark, but then found that the darker ones were too dark:

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Although I kept a few medium-dark glazed flowers, I far preferred those on the lighter side which show the line detail. Plus the medium-light tone works better with the overall color scheme. This meant making a few more flowers and glazing them a bit lighter.

And .... the whole piece put together:

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This flower ordeal is something that is very hard to predict and while I always try to include a buffer in the cost for such re-workings, it's almost impossible to know just what kind of thing will arise. This the kind of thing that pushes me over budget. As always when this happens, what can I do but just avoid thinking about it too much and focus on doing my best work. I really want the customer to have something truly beautiful, not something almost right but not quite. 5 years is far too long to wait for something good but not great!!

And of course my signature which I so often forget but this time the client specifically requested it:

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Stay tuned for my posts every few days offering you an insider's view of my studio and artist's life. Thank you for supporting my blog + my art-work, you make it possible!


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Yet another beautiful piece, an indeed well deserved... 5 years is a long time!
Love the tones of the leaves.
Happy to see your signature which I was wondering about. You actually forget it sometimes?! Tsk tsk tsk 😉

thank you on all counts :-)! yes I've forgotten to sign the majority of my pieces over the years, it's really foolish. Usually it's because towards the end of a project there is a kind of momentum and often an urgency to ship the piece that is related to a deadline and/or needing to be paid so I forget all non-essentials. Perhaps a signature is an essential though!

Haha, perhaps!

What a lovely article @natureofbeing and a truly beautiful piece of work.
I love seeing the process you go through to bring something in to form and was so glad you went for something "truly beautiful, not something almost right but not quite".
What an honour to have a client save for 5 years to be able to have you create something for her.

When first started reading I found myself wondering why you would go to the trouble of making your own tiles when you could just cut some already made. Then I saw the beauty in each individual one and it was obvious!

I'm never seen the process of hand made tiles being made before and I'm loving watching your works in progress or completed like this one.

Thanks so much for taking the time to record your work. Do you enjoy writing the articles or do you find yourself itching to get back to your studio?

Thanks for your thoughtful comment @gillianpearce, I'm so glad to hear that by the time you had progressed in the article, you understood why I make my own tiles. Also that watching the process is offering you something!

And to answer your question, I do truly enjoy creating these posts. I enjoy the story telling and show + tell from my point of view, and I'll say that I actually learn from it all! I just wrote about this a little in my last post where I said

Writing about my work - if approached right - builds my passion for it, much like a conversation with my sweetie about our relationship can help keep the connection strong, clear and the flame alive.

A win-win all round then @natureofbeing. That is wonderful to hear. 😍

Another amazing piece here Ruth. I love the story behind it too. This sure looks like worth the five years wait, your client will love this.

I agree with your advice about having a piece you really love. My favorite is a last supper from my mom she gave me and @dandalion when we were just starting out. It needs some restoration now, but I love it still.

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Thank you so much @steemitph and wow what a gorgeous piece you have here! Is the center 3-dimensional? I can't tell if I'm imagining that or if it is actually in relief.

Yep, it is. I will have more time this coming April to get to having it restored :-)

That's a lot of tedious and delicate work @natureofbeing
Thanks for sharing the process. Turned out nice. Thanks for helping others too. :)
Joy

Wow! That is stunning. I love the colors.

thank you @dfinney!

This is stunning and gorgeous @natureofbeing! We say "golden hands" in Korean when it comes to one's artistic talents. You have golden hands! =]Thanks for sharing the process, truly amazing.

Best compliment ever @mintvilla, thank you so much!!

Interesting story, the fireplace turned out very special and beautiful. A pleasant combination of colors.

thank you @anna-mi, it was a real pleasure to make!

What an amazing little story! I'm sure your client is super excited about getting such a beautiful piece =)

thank you so much @hansikhouse, she was so happy and was one of those rare and wonderful clients!!

ps. sndbox steward footer ok??

Lovely creation, definitely a true work of art. So sweet of her to have saved photos of your work for so long, you know it will be an appreciated piece!

thank you and yes you are so right, I knew my work would be loved and appreciated and this makes all the difference!

Ruth, you are brilliant you amazing, beautiful woman! The client knew you could deliver something so beautiful so she waited patiently for 5 years to get her dream fireplace. This shows how good you are at your work and because you are so nice, you draw lovely clients your way. I loved it! And if possible, do ask the client to send you a picture of the fireplace all set so we can see how the piece looks in her home. Lovely work!

Thank you @sharoonyasir, it's an honor to create these sorts of pieces! And yes actually I've already requested photos :-).

Wow Ruth!! This was such a great read. Beautiful work and results by you and I got so moved by your clients appreciation for your work and how you where able to create this very special piece for her. ❤ Just wonderful!

thank you so very much, really appreciate your camaraderie and support :-))

That is gorgeous. I absolutely LOVE Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts. Particularly the glass and wood and brass/burnished metal aspects of it. I use a lot of that in my created science experiment art. And I have many Frank Lloyd Wright and other large photo books I just LOVE to peruse and dream about. Those houses...I yiii yiiiii! Maybe someday.... when Steemit passes the moon and heads on out to Mars and beyond. We can all hope ( :

It is so nice how you work with clients to give them what they truly want. Kind of rare in the world of the higher end art and craft arena..at least that I'm aware of. You have a very large heart, that's for sure. And to put all that effort (and time and some potential, added profit) into doing it 'right' is amazing. I'm sure that is one thing your clients really appreciate. Integrity above it all.

Though I can certainly relate on a much smaller, less weighty scale. I often spend WAY too much time on my photos for writings on this site. But it's something I just have to do. More for me, I suppose, than anyone else. Probably from a background of photography and the darkroom days. "If it ain't right, it ain't right."

I'm sure your viewpoint and end result on all of this is what brings your clients back, as well as new ones to the door. Keep up the great works and rare attitude about the process and end result. The world certainly needs a whole lot more "do what you know is right" in it's daily spinning's. Though as you've pointed out before, it is a fine balancing act, so you can still buy more clay and sandwiches.

Hope you have a nice weekend...and 'clay away'.

Thank you for your hugely supportive comment, it's much appreciated ;-))
And I'm glad to hear that you slave over your photos until they meet your satisfaction, and to echo you - this is what the world needs more of. When we really put ourselves into what we do, even if it's just raking the leaves, it does make a real difference!

Have a wonderful weekend as well....wonder if we'll all get snow tomorrow

Oh I love art nouveau. The period in it's poster art and graphic work greatly inspires my own painting/drawing/desing today.

We must be kindred art spirits, because I have some of those shades of teal/aqua/blue spread around my living room and kitchen right now. I have always been drawn to this shade family enough that family members will by me a thing, a pot or vase or journal or kitchen pot in that shade of blue and it is called 'my signature colour' in my family, because of my obsession with it.

I love pairing it with terra cotta orange , obviously blues and oranges go wonderfully together, and last year I took one of my long 20 gallon aquariums and paninted the back and side glass (on the outside of course) and the trim in 'my signature blue' and filled it with taupe and white sands some faux coarl in that same shade and filled it with goldfish. I loved it! I even force my colour schemes on my animals.

You are also inspiring me to have a go at ceramic mosaic. I keep toying with doing something in the bathroom or maybe outside to start. Not sure yet. I might have to pick your brain for questions if I attempt something and I'll post about it with progress and you can give me your opinion.

I'm hoping if you truly move out to New England that we do get to have real life 'artists chats'.

And finally, in this long comment, it is very kind and loving of you to work with a budget to get something for someone. I have done so as well with art and when I owned my flower shop, I would sometimes do 'weddings on the cheap' for a kind bride. They would be fun as they were less demanding and it was fun to see what you could come up with in their budget.

Ok, I have rambled on long enough. Back to the studio and the potting shed for this wordy artist ;)

Give mosaic a "go"! It's not for everyone but if it indeed IS enjoyable for you, then it's completely addictive :-). And yes we can do the real life artists' chat!

First of all I love this combination of blue/green, different nuances...!
Then, you know I love your work anyway - what else to write haha! I do like that you always include the procedure/progress step by step - so we see how you got there, not just the final result! Love that !!! :)

thank you @meanmommy33 :-), helps me to go through the act of creating the post too!!

Trying to figure out a budget is a hell for a real artist! It's not just hours we put in, but material as well, indeed. And experiments to see if things work, and then hoping the 'real versions' actually do work as we think they should.

I love that you got this job, it's a huge compliment to know someone saves up for 5 years! just to get your piece in her home - because she believes it will make her that much happier in that sacred place.

Gosh, what a lovely job you have and what a bummer that we have to think about things like rent, sometimes we would love to just work on stuff regardless, make people happy with the things we create.

<3

I think it's gorgeous and your client/fan/fellow art loving human being will have a more beautiful home because of it.

Oh my goodness, you've said it ALL, so true! Huge compliment to be asked to do this project and I really hope that one day I can fund all of the detailed work I can imagine with steem, then I can pay bills and people can pay at the level they can afford. This decentralized blockchain has huge potential.

Thanks for your comment, really great to know that someone else really understands the many layers behind making artwork and design for other people!

Wow! What an amazing story! Your piece is beautiful as always, and I am so happy that you are willing to work with people on a range of budgets. I'm sure that this truly made your customer happy :) Also It is lovely that you take the time to make your work the best it can be!

Satisfaction goes a long way and I often sacrifice profits for beauty....this is why I'm still not making enough $, LOL!!

the perfect idea for the fireplace detail. And it's a great job. I love it!
And I'm very impressed with the story. You are a beautiful and good-hearted person.
I appreciate the value you give for art!

thank you @artizm, I appreciate your support so much!

I like how you create a story out of every piece you make.
You're so talented, you draw, you design, you paint and you write.
Well done Ma

You are so good . You helped someone very.now there are few people like you.

what a delightful story...those kinds of clients really capture our hearts. Beautiful craftmanship @natureofbeing

thank you @houseof couchie!

This is offtopic but I have seen that you voted for me as a witness. I am thankful for every vote that I get.

I came here to personally thank you for that.

If you want to ask me anything just write a comment, or contact me on my SteemSchool Discord server.

thanks for your note @valorforfreedom and for your witness work here on Steemit, we all rely on it!

Indeed we do.

Dear you are awesome. Your art work is very beautiful. I am really impressed with this kind of art. This is very unique and only few people know the value and design this kind of art.

The most interesting thing that you help poor lady which touch my heart. Sometime we have to forget about our business and work for humanity.

I am happy that you took good decision. Dear where you from? Happy to see you on steemit.

Whoa! this job requires a lot of patience!:) but the result is amazing!:)

Hi, I stopped by to give you a big huge thanks for supporting my Fork In The Road post and as soon as i got here, I couldn't help but realize how amazingly talented you are. Great work! Thank you, and great work here.

Thank you and great to see you continuing with good content!

Wow great story. I appreciate you sharing this story with usand great art. I just loveit.

thank you!