Hot Cast Quilt Design
Today is What’s Leah Working On Wednesday and I’m super happy to say that I’m working on a new goddess quilt design!
This pretty girl is called Hot Cast. I saw the image of this quilt while piecing Sinkhole and she has stayed on my mind constantly ever since. Note: This is a pretty rough, early drawing. Scroll down for the most current version.
This goddess embodies everything about how I feel right now: molten, freshly made, recast into a new skin and mental awareness, but also slightly unfinished (I haven’t completely finished Sinkhole), not yet entirely whole.
So the inspiration for this piece is my current emotional state, which is pretty much the base of all of my goddesses, but this time the symbolism I’m using in this goddess is also based on a previous experience.
About 11 years ago, I worked at a bronze foundry casting clay sculptures into bronze using lost wax casting. I participated in many pours over those two years where we would pour molten bronze into a plaster cast which would harden into the pieces for a sculpture.
After the metal had been poured, the plaster would glow bright orange and my job was to blow pressurized air onto the plaster to try to cool it so the metal wouldn’t blow out and ruin the piece (a very time consuming and costly mistake).
When thinking about Hot Cast, I remembered this experience and especially the excitement of seeing this hot, liquid metal flowing into these strange plaster shapes, only to harden into the metal pieces that would eventually become a sculpture.
Of course, after the metal had cooled, all of the pieces have to be sand blasted, ground smooth, then welded together, then ground smooth again. It’s a labor intensive process to put a bronze sculpture together, but like the time it takes to make a quilt, it’s absolutely worth every hour of work to produce something so beautiful.
This mental picture has stuck with me, and while working on Sinkhole I have literally felt some days that I have cast myself a new body and mind, but that it still needs to be welded, heated and hammered, and ultimately shaped into the form I want it to take.
As you can see, I’m still tinkering around with the design of this goddess. Even as I wrote this blog post, I made the decision to add the heart into the center. I realized that it really has to be there because that is where all this molten new metal, and change, is flowing from.
Okay, that’s enough metal analogies for the day!
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
P.S – Years after this post was written, I finally consolidated all of my thoughts and Goddess Quilts into one book. Click Here to find it in my quilt shop.
What a super post – inspiring and honest – well done on casting your broken remnants into the furnace and what a fantastic design that is emerging from those smelts
Gorgeous design, flowing and very graceful. Have you considered giving her an asymmetrical hemline? Just a hunch, but it might be interesting to play around with.
I really like your design, especially the second design with the free flowing hair. The center dividing line looks a little like a tail. That just may be me because I work with animals and often get a wagging tail in my face. I like the addition of the heart. It will be interesting to see your final design. Each time you tweek the design, it will be another step to retraining your mind to automatically think of a positive inner voice instead of negative.
Fantastic design as is the metal molding analogy. Can't wait to watch her develop.
Your Goddess quilts are inspiring.
Wonderful post on much more than quilting. I learned a lot about metal casting, which I knew nothing about before.
The design for your quilt is wonderful. Can't wait to see it filled out.
We are all maliable and able to be reforged whenever we choose.
Wonderful design and self awareness!
I love the concept – I hope that you are planning on making her a whole figure – somehow it would make her seem much further in her developmental process
I love your analogy. I think we all can be malleable, if we choose to be, but so many of us are choosing to feel completely forged and hard to change.
I admire your ability to view yourself and see the changes you want to make, and its inspiring.
Your second design reminds me of the insides of a human body. The "tail" as Roberta called it, to me looks like the main blood vessels (vena cava or aorta) and the connections that would be welded (in your world) look like nerves or blood vessels.
You do good work Leah, both on your blog, in your store, on your quilts, but especially with your family.
Your. Quilts are amazing and your gift of weaving the back-story to accompany each piece is inspiring. I am a beginner and I have a great deal to learn. Thankyou for sharing your art. They Are All Beautiful.