2019 Art Week Des Moines Community Art Project

Initially we were to have a big community art party on Friday June 21 in the Roosevelt Cultural District.  We got nervous about the weather and it was cancelled.  This project was originally planned to be my contribution to that event.  I held a few different events during Art Week and took the flowers to each event.  I asked and sometimes even had to coerce people to participate.  Everyone had a great time and lost themselves creating for a short time. I had an absolute blast watching people from all over the city create!! 

When I ran out of flowers I handed out round beads and people painted their own flowers.  I ended up with well over 100 Flowers

In my pottery studio I try to conserve resources. I save the glaze that customers don't use on their projects, the glaze that won't pour out at the end of the bottle and dried glaze that collect on the spouts of the bottles.  

The background of this piece is made with that reclaimed glaze.

I was really happy with how it came together, the brownish that you see in the word blooms is a wax resist to hopefully prevent any glaze from sticking in the letters.

You can see all the chips of dried glaze that I loaded it up with to make the background

 

 

Waiting for the kiln to run the full 24 hour cycle was so hard!!

When I opened the kiln my hands started shaking I was so excited at how it turned out.

This was such a satisfying project to work on.  I love creating with people.  I love the calm I can feel after they create.  It's calming, it's satisfying and I love sharing that with people.

I could not be happier with the final result! 

 

This type of project has so many applications!  Corporate events, family reunions, fundraisers for schools and organizations.  I can't wait to create with more people!!