The World in Pictures

Thanks to all who came to the LMM show!  It was quite fun to meet many of you.  But I must say I am very relieved to wrap up my show season for a while.  I will be quite happily camped out in the studio until the circuit starts back up in May.  Until then, I will be working on a few large commissions and developing some fun new items that I’ll be sharing in the future.

But today I have something very special to share.  A short while ago I showed you South America, a lovely map in cut copper on an ocean of blue.  That was possibly one of the most realistic maps I’ve created — large, lots of detail, and rich, earthy colors.  Today’s piece is just the opposite — an amazing conceptual piece with a beautiful story, created for a lovely woman as a gift to her husband on their first wedding anniversary.  They love to travel, and the idea was to create a map of the world that would commemorate their journey together.  We started emailing back in October, and spent many weeks brainstorming and visualizing and sketching.  She is quite a visionary (my favorite phrase of hers: “okay, don’t think I’m crazy, but what if–“), and wanted some sort of map that could be constructed almost like a puzzle, so that as they traveled they could put the pieces together.  (See?  I told you it was crazy cool ;) )

We ended up with this design:

…except that instead of being a mere 15 blocks, it grew to 91, and is now a whopping 4′ x 6.75′ (yes, feet).  And the copper is now red and the red is now copper.  (But I do still love this original design, so if any of you would like to commission it at its original scale, I will totally make it for you!)

Now here’s where it got interesting.  She plans to add pieces to the map as they travel, so while a lovely concept, that leaves a mostly blank wall for the near future.  So we started brainstorming ways to give the illusion of the finished piece while still having the fun of putting it together over time.  Since she liked the look of this piece, we decided to mount the entire map on wood, and wood burn the design of the map onto the boards.  (Thanks to a misunderstanding, she still thinks this was my brilliant idea, and I still think it was hers.)

So this led to a project of epic proportions — the lumber yard guys think I am crazy, and I haven’t seen my dining room table for a week.  But I have learned the fine art of wood burning (it works best when you have two tools, each with a different tip), and will hopefully have a spectacular piece once it’s finished:

laying out the grid……………….blocking in North America

The inner parts of the map will be shaded in to create a deeper color, and when finished, the boards will be stained a dark red mahogany:

shaded North America

It has a quite lovely look with the stain over the burned shading, which I hope to show you next week.  Here are a few of the map squares:

Atlantic Ocean

I think it will be quite stunning when it’s finished, and I can’t wait to share more pics!

Until next time, have a wonderful holiday ~ hug your loved ones and enjoy your time together :}

………………..Chris