As I pick out colors for the Wowflute I generally like to pick colors from my own photography. I enjoy colors and am continually striving to get the right color mix! A few years ago I decided to save a Swirl Wowflute from every batch I made. The logic behind this was that if one color mixture sold better than another I would have an example to copy.
This kind of back-fired. I now have over four hundred Swirl Wowflutes in my collection and I tend to make new mixtures every time. No Swirl Wowflute is alike.
I truly enjoy a good prototype. There is something that makes experimenting with new ideas a feast for the mind. This is one of the new prototypes for the Precious Metal Wowflute. I’ve been wanting to try this new material for some time. I finally had the time to test it out. I used Hadar’s Clay in powdered form to make three Wowflutes. I attempted to try the Mokume-Gane method for mixing Copper, Bronze, and Steel to create a colorful swirl pattern similar to my current handmade Wowflutes that are swirled in polymer clay. My fingers were not used to the new weight of the clay! I found the clay was quite malleable when mixed properly but could also turn into something similar to silly putty with too much water. This new material will take some time to get used to. My hands and fingers are trained to the thickness of my polymer clay flutes. I believe I will need to get the wall thickness of the metal wowflutes much thinner and more refined. In order to do this though the clay must be more dry to hold shape – which poses a problem when it comes to drying out and cracking. I will need to make these flutes much quicker when forming to minimize cracks. I think I may be able to use cracks to my advantage and use them for inlay of a different material once the flutes are fired and finished. Quite the new process working in metal! Stay tuned, I will be uploading more pictures of the process soon.
This morning as I was making a batch of flutes I was thinking about why I do what I do – Why I make wowflutes? Why I have such a desire to make dual-functional items? Why clay?
Why am I a maker? The simple answer: I enjoy it! I would gladly make flutes out of clay all day without pay (say that five times fast). It’s that much fun for me. The money I make from flutes is just a side benefit. It is not the end goal. The end goal is to say “I made that” and to be proud of the accomplishment.
This is why I started Wowflutes. It’s because it is mine and I can say “I made that”. There is a satisfaction that comes from those words. I like to try new things and make new things because when I am focused on making things I open up some sort of channel and the ideas just keep pouring through.
I have found that the inspiration and ideas that come to me when I’m doing something is a good measurement of whether I will continue to do it or not. When the ideas flow I know I’m on to something that is greater than myself. This is so exhilarating! When you feel it, it is hard to focus time towards anything else that does not get the juices flowing.
I am truly a maker and I love it!
We all have the potential to create and make our lives what we want them to be. If you don’t like your circumstances – Change them! Make it different or as Captain Jean-Luc Pecard would say: “Make it so”.
