As I create my pieces, I love to add symbolism within each piece. This requires doing some research, which I find so fascinating and will add more depth to what I am creating. I find this whole process very inspiring- to bring more to the piece than just beauty but a deeper thought...a closer touch of the soul.
I knew that I wanted to use roses but why??
The Rose
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| The Mystic Rose |
In spirituality: As the delightful and very gentle rose springs forth from a thorny bush without injuring the mother that it hides with delightful charm, so Mary could as the second virgin wash away the fault of Eve, the first virgin.
The rose as the queen of flowers was evidently a privileged symbol for Mary, Queen of heaven and earth.
In symbolism: The Rose, of our life, blossoms among the thorns--pain, hard work, disappointment. The Rose symbolizes good (flower) out of distress (thorns).
I usually start with a visual, since most of us as artists are driven by our sense of sight...off I went to find images of saints especially Mary and Guadalupe...I went for vintage inspirations that I could evolve into my own interpretation...
So when creating Alma, I took the symbolism of the rose along with the essence of the halo and combined them into roses shaped into a circle.
Now I had my design concept down and needed to actually make the crown!
I found silk and leather roses and started by spray painting them to the same color.
My goal here was to use a premade object (which I rarely do) but transpose it into something that you would not recognize as an ordinary silk or leather flower. I disassembled them and put them back together to change the shape a bit from a mass produced look.
Next was to hand paint them using a water based paint to add a bit truer gold color...
Final touch was a liquid metallic gold leafing to add a bit of illumination to each...
The final finished crown...circle was made using horse hair millinery braid and silk.
