Steam Room Mosaic, a Look at the Process

As usual, my work table is never large enough...

I never know which clients, which projects will penetrate past the professional process of art making and client interfacing to reach me on a more personal level. At the start, this project was not special but it turned out to be a powerfully positive experience.

Early this fall I began working with a client who had seen photos of my work over the past few years and wanted to talk about using some of my tile for the steam room she was building.

She delivers babies and holds support groups for women with cancer. Her work asks a lot of her and she needs to have a space to go inward to revive and connect with herself regularly. She wanted to create a space that nurtures her spirit, her femininity and restores her to wellness.

With this in mind, I suggested making a yantra as a focal point for the room.
A Sri Yantra would amplify the meditative and cleansing qualities of the space and energetically to support the way she’ll use it.
(This is the project that I referred to as being the catalyst for my renewed interest in mandala and yantra making in this September post which discusses the significance and meaning of the Sri Yantra: https://steemit.com/art/@natureofbeing/the-mystical-yantra-meditating-with-color-line-and-shape)

For this I wanted to come up with a less structured Sri Yantra design so I drew up 3 compositions as very loose line sketches. These are variations to the traditional Sri Yantra and are based on my client’s description of what she might like. The 3rd felt fresh and just right.

1st choice:

Next I made a color sketch of the chosen design along with corresponding glazes in a very watery palette. Again, this space is all about cleansing so water is the theme.

Each part of the process of working together unfolded seamlessly and was natural. This is mostly due to my client’s excitement about the work and that she voiced her appreciation at every turn.

As I worked on this piece I was able to experiment with creating 3/d petals around the center geometry, and it worked. I felt the freedom to go with my instincts which created a much better piece than if I’d felt I needed to stick to “the plan”.

We were in synch for every decision and were both clearly enjoying each step in the process. It makes a huge difference to feel this kind of connection with my client, and to feel her appreciation. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was for this level of connection and acknowledgement and found it to be very nourishing.

With these process photos, you can see the sequence of making - of cutting the tile from clay, the bisque-fired pieces ready for glaze, glazed pieces coming out of the kiln, our process of putting it together.

I’d say that this project has set a new standard for me with how I want to work with clients. I want to allow for this deeper level of personal engagement and am going to start off with this in mind now.

Of course I’ve always engaged as much as possible with every project but on some level I see now that I’ve been protected and kept most client relationships more professional. I suppose this has been a consequence of an insecurity with myself that thankfully isn't really there anymore, so now I can let go of the habits that embody it. One of the many benefits of age and experience!

Here the mosaic is held together with huge pieces of face-adhesive like tape so it’s ready for the tile setter to install.

In a follow-up post, I’ll show some photos of the yantra in context once the steam room is completed in a month or so.

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