I have been working a lot indoors this past week. Creating plans and structures for the Vermont Flower show that is coming up on March 6-8. But the week before we had some gentle snows and I decided to finish a sculpture I had started last fall.
Remembering how a windless snowfall can stick to the smallest of branches, I took a single weeping willow branch and wound it around till it formed a pleasing spiral form. I had to do this in an indirect way by pinning the branch to my mossy lawn with small twigs till I had the shape I liked. Then I carefully used thread to apply tension and counter tension till the shape held in place when I picked it up. It looked a bit like a spiders web at that point. Then I set the whole thing aside in a dark, dry closet in the basement so it could dry out holding this shape.
After several months, I removed the thread and the dried willow branch was now holding the spiral all on it's own. Now I just had to wait for the right snowstorm... which we had last week.
I put the spiral out and misted it lightly. It cooled quickly and a fine layer of ice formed on the spiral... now it was ready to receive the snow. I set the spiral against one of the two largest Maple trees on the property. "The Grandmothers" I call these trees... they must be over 250 years old. I crossed my fingers and went to sleep.
The next morning was grey and gloomy but there was about 2 inches of fresh snow. It was very cold and dry so the flakes were particularly large and frosty looking. I snapped a few photos just as the wind was beginning to pick up. Soon all the snow was falling off the branches from above and knocked several bits off the spiral (and down my neck !).
So something that was imagined in November finally takes form in January. It was a good week... and yes, I do realize the double meaning. Cheers!
The sun had set. The shadows were beginning to deepen. I found a lovely drift area where the wind had compacted the snow and carved it at the same time. It was about 5 below zero.
Can't work for too long without gloves on in conditions like that ! A quick spiral was attempted... a sketch really.
It was fun ! More will follow I'm sure once it warms up a little ! :-)
It has been so very cold here the past few days. Too cold to work with ice. I have a sculpture half done but had to wrap it up and hope enough remains when the temperature warms up again. It needs to be at least 10 F or so to use the techniques I use.
So, I went for a walk to see what other sorts of work could be done in this bitter air.
The wind had howled last night and had formed a lovely drift on the top and side of a large boulder here near the house. The snow was extremely fragile, one false touch and it would peel off the rock. So I worked very carefully and had fun accentuating the natural curves that were already in play.
I want to explore working with the shadow elements of the snow, they are so gorgeously deep and full of subtle colour when the sky is clear and blue. Unfortunately, my digital camera seems unable to record these colours as well as the eye can... but it will be fun to see what is still possible.
Stay tuned !!
Please Join me if you can, at the Vermont Flower Show on March 6.7.8 , 2009
There will be an entire display garden of Faerie Houses and I will have a booth there showing all my Environmental sculpture products ; calendars, prints, books and cards. Plus a house or two may be up for sale !
There is a link at the bottom of this page (scroll waaaaay down if your browser shows you a lot of postings, not just this one ) to take you directly to the show's webpage. There is also one in the Nav bar at the right.
I hope you can join us... it is always a welcomed treat to be able to smell lilacs and blooming flowers while there is still a lot of snow on the ground !
Please come if you can !!!!
I am VERY pleased to announce the release of my latest calendar, the 2009 Eartherials calendar with new images from sculptures created last year.
The last Eartherials calendar had just one image per month and a detailed description to go with each image. This year, there were simply too many good images to choose from. I hated to cut the list any shorter, so I put two images on each month page and made the descriptions very brief.
For my loyal blog fans, I am offering a special pricing and access deal. For the moment, the calendar can only be accessed by the special link at the top of the pink box to the right.
This special pricing and access is in effect for the just next week, till January, 15th. After that, the page will go public and the price will increase. This is a special offer for my blog readers and newsletter subscribers. If you order 5 or more calendars, the price drops to $14.70 each.
When you go to the web page, please give it a minute as the website is loading a full preview of the entire calendar for you to see. PLEASE note, the last page (December's) preview is just terrible... but this is not the case for the actual calendar. I just received my proofs and they look fine, the preview however looks fuzzy and out of focus.
I'm really pleased with this calendar and hope you will be too. When you go to the link above, you can also, if you wish, order calendars for friend and have them shipped directly to them. Just make separate orders and Lulu can print the calendar and ship it where ever you like. If you want to ship overseas, it might be better for US buyers to purchase the calendar here and ship it themselves... I'm not sure Lulu can ship calendars Internationally.
*** If you happen to be an overseas customer and would like to purchase these calendars and cannot, please contact me directly and I will work with you to make sure you get some ***
My other announcement will come this week-end.
I was cleaning up my archives from my work that was finished this past year and found a few more houses that did not make it to the blog page because this fall had just so many creative experiments !
This little house sits atop a large heart-shaped boulder. The geology of the site is what attracted me to this location first. This boulder is VERY old as it was embedded in the sandstone layers surrounding it. This streambed is not the usual jumble of boulders which have tumbled down off the mountains, this is old rock, laid down long ago... and yet, this boulder is there ... how truly ancient it must be !
All this thoughtful introspection called for a little Faerie spot to sit and contemplate...so I made this twiggy gazebo. There is a leaf-line bridge heading out from the shore for those who wish to walk to the spot- lightly, of course !
I loved this location and may return again next year, but it is a difficult spot for photographs as it is in a deep ravine with little sunlight able to filter in.... still, a worthwhile place to get to know a little better !
A few more gleanings from last year's work will be posted here shortly... but in the next day or two I am going to have 2 announcements to make so stay tuned !
This image is actually an experiment.
I had an idea about creating an over-sized snowflake sort of sculpture...but I wanted to make just half of the sculpture and let the other half be created by a reflection. The lake has been very windy lately so it was not going to work as a location. The rivers are all frozen and most of the ponds have snow on them... where to go to get that elusive reflection?
I found a spot today out in my west field and decided to give it a try. The work progressed fairly well but sadly, the day began to really deteriorate the last hour before sunset so all the lovely sunset glow that I had hoped to capture in the ice looked like it was not going to happen... so I went up to the house and made a cup of tea to wait for dark.
All of a sudden, the western sky went ablaze with brilliant red light. I grabbed the camera and RAN... forgetting my tripod !! ACK !!!!
By the time I made it down to the sculpture and set up the camera on some quickly arranged snow chunks, the light had really faded... sadly, all the shots were blurry except one, which has too little light to make it very useful but it hints at what is possible if I get lucky with the light next time:
After the reds fully faded and the twilight began to really progress (at 15 F brrrr ) , I lit the small candle I had originally intended for the sculpture and used one of the snow chunks as a blocking shade to hide the actual candle... to get a better exposure.
I still did not have a tripod, so the image quality is not so great...but as an experiment, it is a good start. I see now, design-wise how I can improve certain elements and next time I'll remember to grab that tripod ! I hope to try this again with better icicles and better sunset light... and it gave me a few more winter house ideas too ! Watch this space ! :-)
Welcome to the enchanted world of Environmental art and Faerie Houses sculptures created by Sally J Smith. Here you will find photos of the artist's unique art-forms and hear some of the stories from behind the scenes as she shares with you her creative process.
