Houston Astros World Series Champions Mixed Media Art
All three of my children have attended The Woodlands Methodist School at some point during the last 8 years. We have loved having our children in a Christian school with a high quality education, which is what TWMS provides. For several years now, the school has put on a fundraiser during the fall called Boots & Bling. This year, Boots & Bling will take place at The Woodlands Palmer Course country club. This event includes a silent auction for various donated items, from vacations to works of art.
For several years I have wanted to create a work of art to donate to this event, yet have been too busy. I was strongly considering doing this last year when Hurricane Harvey hit, and left destruction all over the Houston area, including flooding our home and almost every home in our neighborhood. This event was life changing. Three days after our home was flooded, numerous people came into our neighborhood, volunteering and helping us and our neighbors muck out our homes. This army of volunteers included family, friends, brothers and sisters from our church and other churches, and complete strangers. Our church as well as The Woodlands Methodist School helped us tremendously, in many ways, in the days and weeks after this event.
So, this year I made it a priority to make a work of art to donate that would be appreciated by those attending Boots & Bling. I considered several options, but decided on making a piece celebrating the 2017 World Series Champion, the Houston Astros. This work measures 15.5" wide by 20" tall. It is made from kiln glass formed within my kiln, hammer and hardie cut marble tesserae for the mosaic fill along with Italian glass accents, and sawn marble for the frame.
While I lost track of how many firings it took to create the half inch thick round glass Houston Astros logo - I believe it took 6 firings, each firing lasting a minimum of 8 hours, with several taking over 12 hours. This circular piece was crafted using an assortment of sheet glass, frit, dichroic accents, and enamels.
The marble tesserae were hand cut using mosaic tools, a hammer and hardie. This gives each piece a natural rough texture. Among the marble tesserae are various glass accent pieces, including Italian smalti and millefiori.
