An Open Pod
October 19, 2013
Inspirational Art
Our last look at pods this week will be the end of a pod’s purpose and life cycle. It’s a bit of an incorrect statement in that a pod is really part of a plant’s life cycle, so could we consider the pod to have a life cycle of its own? Oh, sure, why not. We’re artists. We can play it a little loose with concepts, right?
In any case, the final act of a pod would be to open up and release its seeds. I think the opening of a pod is not dissimilar from the blooming of a flower in that it opens up and shows the world what it has to offer, self-serving though it may be–but then most beauty is, in essence, self-serving, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These pendants by Judy Dunn are simple but quietly beautiful examples of the revealing stage of a pod.
The polymer pod shapes peel back to reveal shimmering pearls, a very appropriate option to include as the inside of every pod is a treasure of sorts, even if just to the plant that bore it. I enjoy the way the pearls are both a focal point and partly hidden. The formality that pearls often engender is countered with the unevenness of the open pod, as well as the choice of freshwater pearls, which form unevenly. This gives the open pod an understated elegance and a show of appreciation for a very important natural form.
Odd Pods
October 17, 2013
Inspirational Art
Okay … we’ll take one more look at the many form possibilities of pods. A pod doesn’t have to directly translate to something out in nature. It can be more about the idea of a pod, something carrying or transporting, and the shape may be more about the promise of what’s inside than about the form itself.
Wiwat Kamolpornwijit works quite a bit with modified pod forms and forms that reveal what might be within. This pod necklace is a sample of the pod as a concept rather than literal interpretation.
The inside of a pod could look like anything, especially when it’s an exotic pod of your own creation. This mystery allows you to create whatever your imagination might come up with, the way Wiwat has done here. His vision is of some beautiful visual textures with a few seeds peeking out from between the slices, arrayed to define the volume of the pod. These are not like any pods I’ve ever seen, but that is the very beauty of them.
Folded Pods
October 16, 2013
Inspirational Art
Barbara Fajardo spent some time back in 2008 playing with the pod shape. She placed canes or mokume slices over scrap clay and hand formed these lovely beads. She played with how they hung, both dangling downwards and being strung lengthwise, and with how the canes were laid. I thought these gave a nice sampling of her color work inspired by the New Mexico desert, a place of many odd pods, let me tell you.
It was hard picking an image from her collection of work on Flickr, so please do pop over to the page and get a glimpse of the necklaces she also makes, playing off the mirror effect of the folded layer look along with some other lovely cane covered pods.
Stretching the Pod Form
October 15, 2013
Inspirational Art
Yesterday’s pods were primarily of the plumper variety, so today I thought we’d look at a beautiful example of a thinner, longer version.
I find these caned and charred looking beads by Keryn Wells to have a rich, almost tribal feel to them. I enjoy how the patterning is worked fluidly into the black spaces, aided by the way the shapes in the cane mimic the form of the elongated pods themselves.
Although I get more of a sense of wood from the coloring and treatment, it is one good example of a fairly familiar pod shape, at least here in the US–that of the string bean. I don’t think many of us think of beans as pods but, of course, that is exactly what they are. And they can have such a lovely, graceful shape and line to them. Yes, I have been quite often inspired by my dinner plate. Sometimes I get lost in my Brussels sprouts or become almost too enamored of my kiwi slices to eat them. (I said almost!) Food is certainly great inspiration.
The Many Shapes of Pods
October 14, 2013
Inspirational Art
I have been seeing a lot of pods over the last week or two. Maybe it’s because it’s the Fall season up here in the northern hemisphere, when many plants have matured or given up their flowers to put forth their essential, seed bearing components. When I think of pods, the first things that come to mind are round but elongated forms, maybe larger on one end with the other coming to a point. But that is an extremely narrow image of a pod. In truth, pods come in quite a large variety of shapes.
When speaking of the pods grown in nature, pods can be round or flat, long or squat, smooth or rough, and as small as a pea or so large it takes two hands to hold one. The only defining factor with pods is that they hold something, encasing a collection of possibilities in their many seeds or whatever else might be hidden away within.
That’s why I thought we’d start the week of with an interesting piece that might be described a study of pod varieties. Lori Phillips, who looks to work exclusively in ceramics now, took a detour into polymer a few years back to create this piece.
Most of these beads look like they could have been inspired by real versions in nature, although I’m guessing from looking at the free form work elsewhere on Lori’s Flickr page that these all came from her own imagination; but either way, they seem to show a fascination with natural forms.
Why do we see so many pod shapes in polymer? Well, the truth is, we like to to play with all kinds of shapes; it’s just that I get the feeling that we may have a particularly strong affinity for pods. Why do you think that might be? We’ll explore that question while we admire the many pretty variations of the pod form in polymer this week.
Our last look at pods this week will be the end of a pod’s purpose and life cycle. It’s a bit of an incorrect statement in that a pod is really part of a plant’s life cycle, so could we consider the pod to have a life cycle of its own? Oh, sure, why not. We’re artists. We can play it a little loose with concepts, right?
In any case, the final act of a pod would be to open up and release its seeds. I think the opening of a pod is not dissimilar from the blooming of a flower in that it opens up and shows the world what it has to offer, self-serving though it may be–but then most beauty is, in essence, self-serving, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These pendants by Judy Dunn are simple but quietly beautiful examples of the revealing stage of a pod.
The polymer pod shapes peel back to reveal shimmering pearls, a very appropriate option to include as the inside of every pod is a treasure of sorts, even if just to the plant that bore it. I enjoy the way the pearls are both a focal point and partly hidden. The formality that pearls often engender is countered with the unevenness of the open pod, as well as the choice of freshwater pearls, which form unevenly. This gives the open pod an understated elegance and a show of appreciation for a very important natural form.
Read More
Okay … we’ll take one more look at the many form possibilities of pods. A pod doesn’t have to directly translate to something out in nature. It can be more about the idea of a pod, something carrying or transporting, and the shape may be more about the promise of what’s inside than about the form itself.
Wiwat Kamolpornwijit works quite a bit with modified pod forms and forms that reveal what might be within. This pod necklace is a sample of the pod as a concept rather than literal interpretation.
The inside of a pod could look like anything, especially when it’s an exotic pod of your own creation. This mystery allows you to create whatever your imagination might come up with, the way Wiwat has done here. His vision is of some beautiful visual textures with a few seeds peeking out from between the slices, arrayed to define the volume of the pod. These are not like any pods I’ve ever seen, but that is the very beauty of them.
Read MoreBarbara Fajardo spent some time back in 2008 playing with the pod shape. She placed canes or mokume slices over scrap clay and hand formed these lovely beads. She played with how they hung, both dangling downwards and being strung lengthwise, and with how the canes were laid. I thought these gave a nice sampling of her color work inspired by the New Mexico desert, a place of many odd pods, let me tell you.
It was hard picking an image from her collection of work on Flickr, so please do pop over to the page and get a glimpse of the necklaces she also makes, playing off the mirror effect of the folded layer look along with some other lovely cane covered pods.
Yesterday’s pods were primarily of the plumper variety, so today I thought we’d look at a beautiful example of a thinner, longer version.
I find these caned and charred looking beads by Keryn Wells to have a rich, almost tribal feel to them. I enjoy how the patterning is worked fluidly into the black spaces, aided by the way the shapes in the cane mimic the form of the elongated pods themselves.
Although I get more of a sense of wood from the coloring and treatment, it is one good example of a fairly familiar pod shape, at least here in the US–that of the string bean. I don’t think many of us think of beans as pods but, of course, that is exactly what they are. And they can have such a lovely, graceful shape and line to them. Yes, I have been quite often inspired by my dinner plate. Sometimes I get lost in my Brussels sprouts or become almost too enamored of my kiwi slices to eat them. (I said almost!) Food is certainly great inspiration.
I have been seeing a lot of pods over the last week or two. Maybe it’s because it’s the Fall season up here in the northern hemisphere, when many plants have matured or given up their flowers to put forth their essential, seed bearing components. When I think of pods, the first things that come to mind are round but elongated forms, maybe larger on one end with the other coming to a point. But that is an extremely narrow image of a pod. In truth, pods come in quite a large variety of shapes.
When speaking of the pods grown in nature, pods can be round or flat, long or squat, smooth or rough, and as small as a pea or so large it takes two hands to hold one. The only defining factor with pods is that they hold something, encasing a collection of possibilities in their many seeds or whatever else might be hidden away within.
That’s why I thought we’d start the week of with an interesting piece that might be described a study of pod varieties. Lori Phillips, who looks to work exclusively in ceramics now, took a detour into polymer a few years back to create this piece.
Most of these beads look like they could have been inspired by real versions in nature, although I’m guessing from looking at the free form work elsewhere on Lori’s Flickr page that these all came from her own imagination; but either way, they seem to show a fascination with natural forms.
Why do we see so many pod shapes in polymer? Well, the truth is, we like to to play with all kinds of shapes; it’s just that I get the feeling that we may have a particularly strong affinity for pods. Why do you think that might be? We’ll explore that question while we admire the many pretty variations of the pod form in polymer this week.
Read More