Merry Go Round - Collaboration project: Eliot and Murray

On the last day of the year, as it's also the last Friday of the month - it's another Merry Go Round blog post.  Our merry go round is where a group of 8 artists/craftwomen link together around the world and tell you a little about their art and craft, through blogging on the same topic.


For this month's topic, to end the year,  we decided to collaborate with each other and make something involving two of us.  Names were drawn out of a hat and the first person had to send their partner a little something that they had made.  The second person then had to create a collaboration piece, combining their art/craft with the creation from their partner.

My collaboration partner was Mitsy from ArtMind and she sent a wonderful little package from Belgium. It was such a delight to open up  - beautifully packaged with her signature doll in a fabric little purse.  Mitsy had previously asked me what my favorite color was - so it was extra special to see lime feature in so many of the pieces:

The piece that first caught my eye, inspiration wise, was the top piece in the above photo - the oval.  It immediately made me think of my old pet, Eliot the tortoise. I called him T. S. Eliot for tortoise-shell Eliot.  The ceramic looked just like a tortoise shell and it was all that I could see for a while, and so, a new Eliot was born - with a happy smiley face. Meet Eliot:

T. S. Eliot

I checked with Mitsy and she confirmed that the ceramic was fired at a much greater temperature than the silver clay, so I formed the clay around the ceramic "tortoise shell" and then fired them both together.  There was a little bit of browning on the edge of the green glaze but otherwise the silver and ceramic were very compatible.

My  other piece of Mitsy's that inspired me was her flower, shown in the center of the first photo.  I decided it would be nice for one of my silver creatures to be the bearer of Mitsy's flower - presenting it to someone.  And so Murray was born.  He is a creature of my imagination - not any specific animal - but a bringer of flowers to those who need cheering. Meet Murray:

Murray

What I really enjoyed about the collaboration is that while making Eliot and Murray, I had Mitsy in my mind.  I've never met any of the merry go rounders but we know each other through our emails, blogs, etc. It felt different creating something with someone else's work and spirit involved too.  In fact, Murray has now travelled back to Belgium.  When he was born, we whispered in my ear that he wanted to go to someone special so off he went and got there safely. I hope he is bringing happiness to his new friend.

Collaborating seemed a wonderful way to end our year of Merry Go Rounding.  It's been another great year of interesting interactions, blog posts, and learning and supporting each other.  I do so enjoy our monthly merry go rounds! Thank you all, merriers!

As my last blog post of the year, I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year with lots of creative time too!  I'm so happy you take the time to read my blog - and I look forward to keeping in touch with you all in 2011.

I hope you have time to click on the links of the other merry go round team and see what collaboration projects they came up with.  I sent a little something of mine to Sara at Crafts of Texture. We live in all different places around the world, so time differences may impact when we all get our blog post up.


Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.blogspot.com
Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com  
Fabienne at Easterya Jewellery Creations - http://easterya.blogspot.com
Mariana at Florcita - http://www.florcita.eu/
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Lily at Lily Pang Art and Design - http://lilypangart.blogspot.com
Mitsy at ArtMind - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com