Hello everyone! It’s been a little while since I’ve posted, but that’s because I have been having an incredible summer of traveling! In June, I was at Penland for two weeks helping Cindy Fisher with a mosaic workshop there. Then, I headed to Chicago for a bit of a vacation with Adam, who was attending the American Library Association conference. While there, I met Gene Luen Yang, author of the graphic novel American Born Chinese, reading I wholeheartedly recommend. I had one short week at home and now I have arrived at Arrowmont for a six week stint as a Studio Assistant. For those of you who don’t know, I did that last summer too and loved it! The atmosphere at Arrowmont is so supportive and creative, it feels wonderful to be back.

I’m hoping sometime while I’m here to post some photos of my travels and of some of the work I’ll be making while I’m here. I’m thrilled to be taking classes from Kathy King, Jenny Mendes and Sunshine Cobb while here. And all in a row, no less! It will be a three week clay intensive, but I think I’m ready!!

Finally, you may notice that the annoying popup from my web host is no longer an issue. I have my wonderfully talented webmaster/designer/super friend extraordinaire Kate to thank for that. THANK YOU KATE! You’re the best!!

I’ve only been making these sgraffito mugs for about three months, but it finally feels like I have achieved some functional work that is truly my own. Here is a story about an event that helped me get where I am now.

For anyone that’s followed my functional work in the past, you may recall the arabesque teapots, stamped mugs, and ornate embellishments lavished upon every pot. The problem with these previous pots was that they were perfectly competent pots that had nothing whatsoever to do with me or my personality. They were good pots, but they were not personal. And at least for me, when a pot is personal, when it resonates with the maker’s intent and unique style, well, that is when a pot is truly special. I could see this je ne sais quoi emanating from other potters’ work and was frustrated to not see it coming from mine.

Goa, 2009

This feeling reached a tipping point when a gallery that had been selling my early work reported to me that their customers were scared of my pots. That the pots were too formal, too elaborate, too intimidating for them to ever use. Instantly a couple of things went though my head. Firstly, I have always been a person who strongly dislikes the idea of the “special” plates that sit in a cabinet 360 days of the year and are only brought out on major holidays. As soon as I heard the gallery’s comment, I realized that I had been making that exact type of pot, the 360 day cabinet sitters. How ironic.

Secondly, I had always loaded so much embellishment and detail onto my work as a way to invite people in, to make them want to examine & take in every facet of the pot. It was now clear to me that my strategy was failing, and all the detailing and embellishments were just serving to overwhelm and intimidate.

Thirdly, I had a small moment of panic. I clearly needed to stop making these pots and make something else. But what?

Finally, I was overwhelmingly grateful to the gallery for giving me this information. As an artist, you don’t always get to hear people’s completely candid opinions of your work. Without this commentary, I may have continued making unfulfilling pots for much longer than I actually did. If you are a gallery owner reading this, I encourage you to pass on customer feedback to your artists, even when it is negative. It may just be the catalyst for a new and better phase of their work.

That incident happened probably about two years ago, over which time I have gone through and discarded several other attempts at achieving personal pots. Now I have finally come up with some pots that are inviting, and I feel represent my aesthetic better than my functional work ever has. I have already gotten an overwhelmingly positive response on them from friends, family, and my new gallery, the Appalachian Artisan Center. I may end up changing my work again in the future, but for now I feel like my pots finally have that certain something they have always lacked.

Eastern Screech Owl Mug, 2013

Just as I predicted, this Dark Forest theme has really captured my imagination. After I finished the deer sculpture from the last post, I knew I had something I needed to explore for awhile.

In the last post, I described the idea of the Dark Forest as a metaphor for dark and confusing times that we all pass through as part of the human experience. I think everyone will pass through one at some point. Some people are in the process currently. But everyone’s experience is different. I thought of the Dark Forest as a vast place, with many different pathways and creatures lurking there. My plan is to create a series of Dark Forest Species. Each one will personify (animal-ify?) one experience, struggle, or thought that a person could meet with on their journey. Some might be harrowing, others might be sad. Others may represent the light at the end of the journey. In any case, it’s a lot to work with so I am ready to hit the studio and populate this forest!

Here is an in progress shot of my next Species:

This guy is meant to be a little unsettling. He is one of the more worrisome things you could meet while in the dark forest. More on that later, when he is completed.

Also, on a personal note: I was describing some of my ideas to a friend of mine when she stopped me and said, “Emily. Are you going through something you want to talk about? Is everything okay?” I was really touched by her concern, and had totally not realized that making work about struggling with difficult issues might- well, make people think I was dealing with some difficult issues! Truthfully, I am doing just fine, and that’s what I told my friend. I have made self-referential pieces before, to parse out something I was thinking or dealing with at the time. But this new series isn’t.

However, I’ve got some friends that have or are currently going through some tough times. One thing that continually amazes me about people is their ability to appear normal and happy, and function well in day-to-day life, while secretly they are carrying some pretty serious burdens. Whether it’s some tough memories they’re trying to move on from, or a present-day issue, people can have a lot going on in their head that you might never find out about. So I can tell you that a lot of the inspiration for this series is taken straight from the experiences of people who I greatly admire and cherish. Without naming any names or exposing any stories directly, I wanted to find some way to express the poignancy and complexity of what people carry with them under the surface.

As a ceramic artist, I have always felt this back-and-forth between making sculpture and making functional work. I think sculpture is my heart’s calling, but I can never quite shake the need to make functional stuff every once in awhile. There’s something really satisfying about spending your day-to-day mealtimes and rituals with your artwork (and the work of others, too). I also love functional work because it’s easier to give as a gift, and fundamentally, I believe that art is the artist’s gift to the world.

As I mentioned last post, I’ve been in a bind with sculpting lately because the raku kiln I’m working on is not yet ready. But, I still wanted to get some sculpture through to completion. So, I decided to sgraffito on my sculpture. Here is the result:

“To Know Darkness”

In fables and stories, the dark forest is often a place where characters must face some sort of trial or threat, go through a transformation, or have their fate redirected in unpredictable ways. It is a mysterious and not altogether pleasant place that ultimately shapes the character’s personality and destiny. In my adult life, I liken the dark forest to the struggle of the mind: with issues like depression, anxiety, addiction, and inner conflict. I wanted to make a piece expressing how each of us has our own dark forest that we must pass through. I chose a deer for the subject because deer are prey animals, and represent the feeling of vulnerability we have when dealing with heavy issues of mental stress.

This image of the dark forest resonated deeply with me as I was making the work. I remembered the apprehension of childhood tales, wondering if the characters in the story would make it out okay. I also thought of people I know, currently struggling with their own weighty issues, and it just seemed to make a lot of sense as a metaphor. I have a feeling this forest will persist in my personal imagery for awhile.

As I was carving the trees and deer’s fur, I began to wonder what the design would look like on other surfaces. It suddenly struck me that the design might translate well to cups and other functional work. I was seized by the desire to test it out. After completing the sculpture, I took to my sketchbook and drew several pages of cup shapes with the dark forest design on them. I wanted something organic and comfortable to use that also wouldn’t minimize the impact of the design. Ultimately, the form I chose was this:

“Dark Forest Mug”

I think it works well!

The whole cup was covered in black underglaze while leather hard, then I decorated the outside with the dark forest sgraffito carving. I also carried the design a tiny bit over to the inside of the rim. That’s a design trick I picked up from one of my favorite potters, Lorna Meaden. (Which, by the way, her work is seriously delicious, check it out here.) I used a matte clear glaze on the outside to keep a subtle look, while lining the inside with a shiny clear for durability. I wanted to make sure the form, function, and design were all working together, which balancing act, in my opinion, is the toughest and also most intriguing challenge of making functional pottery.

I can’t wait to get back in to the studio to make more of these cups, and quite possibly some other functional forms to sgraffito on! It’s always exciting to be at the beginning of a new style of work!

As you may realize from my current work, I’m into black and white ceramics.

It’s not that I don’t like using color: I love it! In fact, that is one of the reasons I fell so hard for mosaic art. I love the brilliant colors and juicy depth of the glass. Theoretically, glaze is also glass, so I should have just as much success with colorful glazes, right?

Well, not so much. I have been trying for many years to figure out the perfect colorful finish for my work. I have tried colored slips, underglazes, stains, majolica, gas glazes, electric glazes, oil paint, decoupage, encaustics, you name it. I was never 100% satisfied with any of these finishes on my sculptural work. Or my functional work for that matter. I never felt that sense of harmony that the surface treatment “fit” the piece and adequately showed off the craftsmanship underneath. For years I liked my pieces best at the leather-hard stage: that is, before they had any glaze applied to them.

Then I tried an experiment: raku glazing one of my sculptures. It was this one, “Dilemma:”

I couldn’t have been more thrilled with the result. The subtle finish complimented my sculpting and carving marks, and looked entirely natural on the piece. The black and white color scheme was striking, and helped convey the somewhat poignant mood I was aiming for.

That was last year, in 2012. Now it’s 2013, and it’s experiment time again. My current studio at the School of Craft doesn’t yet have a raku kiln, although I am working on building one. But up until the kiln is completed (and it gets a little more seasonable to stand outside to do it!) I wanted to figure out an alternate finish for my pieces that I could do in our electric kiln.

And that, ladies and gentleman, brings me to the title of the post: sgraffito! To sgraffito, you must cover your work in colored slip or underglaze, then carve through that painted layer to make your design. If you use black underglaze on white clay, you get a striking, graphic look, much like a linoleum block print. I learned how to sgraffito as an undergraduate, but I never really thought much of it until I took at workshop at Arrowmont in 2007 with the Sgraffito Queen herself, Kathy King. That was my first Arrowmont experience, and was it ever amazing! Kathy was a really fun and energetic instructor, and the group we had in the class was very easygoing as well. Kathy kept the atmosphere good-humored and fast paced, giving us all room to experiment and even goof off a little. She even gave us hand-drawn handouts of her glaze recipes and techniques, which I still consult to this day. Thanks, Kathy!!!

Kathy’s work uses imagery inspired by indie comics, pinup girls, and other forms of pop culture to give her often satirical take on the experience of the modern woman. Her work is often hilarious, sometimes poignant, never apologetic. One that particularly sticks in my mind is her hilarious take on cramps: showing a despondent looking egg dressed in a suit and briefcase, being chased away by devils with pitchforks yelling, “you’re not wanted here!” Here is one of her stacked vessels, “Home Flower Vase.”

I love the movement created by the small carving marks that make up the background of the piece. To see more of Kathy’s work, visit her website. FYI, for interested parties, Kathy is teaching a workshop on these stacked vessels at Arrowmont this summer! I noticed this when I was scoping the schedule, considering applying for a summer internship again this year. Here’s more information on the class.

That same year I took Kathy’s workshop, I also had the opportunity to go to NCECA with ceramics club at Truman State. (NCECA is a giant annual conference for ceramics people, clay heaven basically.) There I was introduced to the lovely work of Karen Newgard. Karen is also a sgraffito artist, currently living and working in Asheville, NC. Her work is inspired by her family home, patterning in nature, and Southern Folk Art. I love all of Karen’s work, but especially her jars. Here are two delicious examples:

“Tall Bird Jars”

“Botanical Jar”

To see more, visit Karen’s website. She has a particularly interesting section called “Pottery Process,” showing a step-by-step creation of her work. By now you all know how much I love process photos!!

So get ready, people. I plan to go sgraffito crazy until I get this raku kiln up and running. So far I have already busted one very well loved carving stylus in this experiment and the second one is on its last legs. Don’t worry, though, there are more tools on the way (thanks, mom!) I am also taking lots of photos for you so as soon as experiment #1 gets through the kiln, you can expect to hear all about it! For now, here is a little sneak peek:

Until next time!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know about that annoying popup that has been persistently bothering anyone who comes to my site. I know it’s there, and am currently taking steps to get rid of it. I need to change to a different web host, and that is a project in progress by my wonderful web designer, Kate Moore.

In the meantime, thank you for your boundless patience in visiting the site despite being hassled by the Popup from Hell. Love you all!

-Emily

Okay everyone, I have been just dying to show you my latest mosaic work! I couldn’t do it until now, though, because it was a Christmas present for my family and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. The present has been opened now, so I can finally share my most ambitious mosaic to date with all of you!

Before that, though, I want to share some other exciting mosaic-related news. Cindy Fisher, who you may recall was the instructor I met at Arrowmont who got me all fired up about mosaics, has graciously invited me to assist her at a workshop at Penland School
of Crafts this summer! I will be there helping with her two-week mosaic course from June 8-22. I have never been to Penland before, but I have heard nothing but good about it and can’t wait to go! For those unfamiliar, Penland is a nationally known craft school, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It’s similar to Arrowmont, hosting workshops taught by nationally known artists year-round.

Now, back to the mosaic. As I mentioned, this mosaic was intended as a Christmas present for my parents, who had a specific spot on their wall they complained was too bare. Getting the hint, I set out to make a mosaic for the spot.

The dimensions of this project were 18 x 24, larger than anything I had yet attempted. My parents, like me, are nature lovers, especially of birds and blossoms. I pulled out my big drawing pad and made a sketch of three chickadees on a dogwood:

Now, I wanted to do this mosaic in the indirect method, which involves laying the tiles (tesserae) down on sticky contact paper and then eventually attaching those tiles to cement board. This means that the side facing up when you lay the glass on sticky paper will eventually be the back, the side that gets stuck to the board. So, the face down sides of the tiles will end up showing, and the image will be reversed. I liked the image in this orientation so I traced a backwards copy of it to work from, so the final mosaic would have this same orientation.

After that was done, I began laying the tiles. Cindy taught me to always lay the foreground first, from the most detailed and important elements to the least. I figured the birds were the #1 item, so I began with them.

Notice the I’m laying the ridged back side of the vitreous tile face up, because this side of the mosaic will eventually become the back. It’s easy to forget this at the beginning and end up having to flip some tiles! Another helpful Cindy tip is putting the little white “shines” in the eye, to give them some life. Chickadees don’t really have a grey spot over their eyes, but I was forced to add one in order to differentiate the eye from the rest of the head.

Here’s the completed center bird. I wanted to give the impression of the wing and tail feathers being glossy, so I snuck some white tiles in.

The three birds, completed. Next I began on the blossoms:

I added lots of different colored green “crumbs” for the centers of the blossoms, and some subtle pinks for the tips. The most challenging part about the flowers was trying to portray them from all different angles, how they’d appear on an actual tree.

Here are the completed birds and blossoms. The only remaining foreground at this point were the branches and leaves, which were a very fast part to complete:

Next I deliberated for a long time about the background. It might seem like the background is the simplest part, but I actually find it to be the most challenging. Contrast is one of the most important parts of a mosaic, and I think movement is, too. So I kept those things in mind as I deliberated. If I just laid dark green tiles in the background like a row of bricks, I’d achieve neither one of these things, since the leaves and twigs would get lost in the dark green color, and the brick structure would take all the lovely organic-ness out of the foreground.

I wanted to give the impression that there were leaves and sky behind the dogwood tree, with all the shifting shadows and light that come through tree branches. I had a lot of dark colors in the foreground, so it became apparent that the background would have to be somewhat light so the birds would “pop.” here is what I began with: 

I laid some large pale green pieces to act as background leaf clusters. Then I added various blues, greens, and some ivory for the muted sunlight. But, something felt lacking. Then I realized: I had put in all highlights and no shadows. The background needed some strategically placed darker areas.

That felt much more satisfying. I eventually also began to add in some pinks, to help pick up the subtle pink tips of the dogwood blossoms. Here is the completed layout:

I’m still not sure I got the “shifting shadows on the leaves” effect, but I consider it a successful background overall. So, I prepared for the messy part: setting and grouting!

To set the tiles onto the cement backing board, I prepared some white thinset and spread it on the board with a notched trowel. Then I flipped the thinset-coated board onto the tiled surface. I don’t have any pictures of that for you, since it takes two hands to drop the board onto the tile and plus I didn’t want thinset on the camera. So use your imagination and we end up with this:

So now, the image has been reversed, and the smooth sides of the vitreous tiles are now showing. Obviously, we are in need of some grout, since the white color of the thinset is breaking up the image something awful.

I used medium gray grout for this image. Then, I painted the exposed border a nice warn green. Here’s the final result! 

No, that’s not what potters say after we hit our finger with a hammer. They’re glaze ingredients! Welcome to my post about the behind-the-scenes of glaze mixing and its challenges!

Okay so that sounds like a bit of a snooze, admittedly. But glazes are such a huge and important part of doing ceramic art. The chemistry of it can actually be quite fascinating . . . if at times frustrating. In my opinion, glazes are their own separate world demanding a considerable amount of knowledge, experimentation, and skill. Oh, and PRACTICE. In my relatively short career (I began my undergrad in 2004) I have already done literally hundreds of glaze tests. I once mixed and fired 60 tests in the hunt for a mere 6 colors.

So it was with trepidation and, I won’t lie, some amount of dread, that I embarked on the search for a set of glazes for my new studio home at The Kentucky School of Craft at Hazard Community & Technical College (HCTC).

I’m scheduled to teach several classes this fall, and I wanted a group of glazes that would allow my students lots of different options as far as color & surface texture goes. I also wanted a group of glazes that could coordinate well together if a student wanted to use more than one on a particular piece or set. I also wanted glazes that weren’t overly temperamental. Any potter can tell you horror stories of a temperamental glaze: too runny, too rough, comes out ugly unless fired precisely right, comes out ugly unless it’s applied with the exact perfect thickness, causes “blushes” on any pots next to it, bubbles, cracks, crawls . . . . yep, there are plenty of things that can go terribly, terribly wrong. In my opinion, finicky glazes have their place with professionals, but are more trouble than they’re worth in a school setting.

Now, before I go further I should mention that you can just buy ready-made glazes from ceramic supply stores. And plenty of people do, though it ends up being more expensive in the end. My school already had a considerable amount of raw materials on hand, and I have training in mixing. So off I went on a glaze recipe hunt!

Finding good glaze recipes is a lot like finding good food recipes. The best ones are often passed down heirloom style from mentors & masters, and the internet is a dubious source at best. Knowing this, I decided to take the safe route of getting my recipes from trusted sources. I pulled recipes from Ceramics Monthly, Mastering Cone 6 Glazes, and the wonderful ceramic artists Lana Wilson & Jason Bige Burnett. I had the immense pleasure of meeting them both this summer at Arrowmont. Lana is an amazing artist and educator who has written tons of helpful articles for potters. She was fond of telling us her ceramics “failure stories” at Arrowmont, which is a great help to us early career folks mucking through our first tries at things. Jason is one of the 2012-2013 Artists in Residence at Arrowmont. He has a great joie de vivre that you can see in his work. I definitely recommend checking out their art!

Really and truly experienced glaze-makers can formulate their own glazes, from scratch. Others use a formulation software. I’m no expert, nor do I own software, so I went with the “trusted source” method. Luckily, most potters share recipes freely, as we have a shared understanding of the challenges of the media. Lana, for one, has a  set of recipes for download right on her website. Plus, even using the same glaze, every potter’s work will still be different. Finally, as you’ll see later, even WITH using someone else’s recipe you can still come up with different results in the kiln.

So, I went to work in my glaze mixing lab. I always feel somewhat like a mad scientist in here: 

All of those containers you see lined up are full of raw glaze ingredients. Pretty much every ingredient comes in the form of a fine powder. Most are white or tan but if you look you can spot some red or black ones. Chrome Oxide is a bright, Oscar The Grouch green. I always have to wear a respirator to work with them. The bags on the left are what most powders usually come in, then I transfer some to the containers. On the tabletop on the right are my triple-beam balance and digital gram scale. Those funky white pipes are part of the room’s ventilation.

So I went to work, mixing and testing. Ultimately, I fired two batches of tests. I wanted to try the same glazes in two different kiln programs, because the speed at which the kiln heats and cools can affect the results dramatically. Annnnnnd . . .  here are the results!

I know this may not look like much, but it’s the result of nearly two months of hard work. The names of these glazes are:

(top row): Slate Blue, Caribbean Blue, Spearmint, Tenmoku Brown, Gunmetal Black (bottom row): G1214Z Matte Clear, White Satin, Kate the Younger Clear Gloss, Raspberry, Nutmeg.

I wish you could see & touch these in person because the surface textures just came out delicious. I did have a few results that came out different than what they were meant to look like, but I am actually happy with the results the way they are. The biggest head scratcher was the “Spearmint” from Mastering Cone 6 Glazes. It’s the center upper tile. It’s meant to look like this. What I actually got was a kind of yellowish leafy green color.

Turns out, the authors have an FAQ on their website addressing this very issue. One of the ingredients they used is kind of a wild card: it’s called Rutile. Rutile is a less pure form of Titanium Dioxide. It’s actually the stuff that’s responsible for the starburst effect inside of star rubies and sapphires like the famed Star of India. Because rutile is not that pure, it differs from sample to sample. I knew about this from my undergrad years when we had a glaze go “rogue” once because a new batch of rutile caused the color to shift. Mystery solved!

So there you have it, a glimpse into glaze making in all its crazy glory. Hope you enjoyed!

I frequently have the thought that the hardest part of making art is planning what to do. Once that’s done, then you get to do the fun part of actually creating it. I think I spent the better part of an afternoon thinking up and researching my plan for mosaic #2.

I’m not really a person who believes in spirit animals, but if I was, a fox would be mine for sure. So I knew I wanted to do a fox, but I wanted to put it in some setting that was sort of fanciful or mystical. Inspiration is an odd thing, and for some reason, “Hey Diddle Diddle” popped into my head and soon I had the image of a fox jumping over the moon.

Here’s my sketch:

You can see I’ve already taped the sticky paper down and began by laying down some of the facial features. Remember I always have to put the most intricate and important parts down first.

And were these little face pieces intricate! To move around pieces this small, I used tweezers and a dental scaler. Vitreous glass isn’t too bad but little stained glass shards can be SHARP! By the end of the class I had seventeen ( I counted) teeny tiny cuts from accidentally brushing my hand over them. Next time I’ll be more careful!

Visually, I really liked the fox jumping over the moon in a rightward direction, like in my sketch. But with indirect method mosaic making, you end up reversing the image in the end. But ah HA! The ever-resourceful Cindy had a simple solution to this problem: the Double Reverse Method. When I completed my layout, all I would need to do is stick a second sheet of contact paper over the top of the mosaic, rub vigorously to stick the tesserae down to it, then flip the mosaic over and peel off the original sheet of sticky paper. Brilliant!

The one and only challenge with double-reverse is the texture on the vitreous glass. The texture is on the back, and with double-reverse you naturally put the back sides of tiles down onto the sticky paper. But the bumpy, ridged texture on the backs of the vitreous pieces caused them to annoyingly wobble and even detach themselves when other pieces would bump them. So, I had to do a lot of delicate tweezer work to keep these wobblers in place.

Here I’ve added more pieces to the body. The colored bits are mainly stained glass (flat on both sides and NOT wobble-prone, thank goodness) while the black is vitreous. I had to do the feet twice, on my first attempt I made the toes comically huge:

My table-mate Maria and I had a good laugh about that. Good thing I was using the indirect method or my fox would have been stuck with clown feet.

After some more work, the fox body is done:

Then I proceeded on to the moon, the green grass, and the night sky. I was particularly excited to do a night sky because I was looking forward to getting all impressionistic and Van Gogh with it. There’s a mosaic Cindy made with a snowshoe hare in front of a beautiful night sky that was also an inspiration. If you go to this page and scroll about halfway down, you will see it, right underneath the penguins.

About halfway through the grass I realized that I had set up a really big challenge for myself. Because you see, grass is thin. Very thin, and long. So to make it look realistic I had to cut a bunch of really long, thin shards and stick them all down in a natural-looking way. But of course, pieces of grass crisscross each other all the time, so I was forever cutting the long shards in half so one of them could appear to cross behind another. To make matters worse, some of the pieces were vitreous glass, and their bumpy backs were making them tip over and wobble all over the place. Not to mention, I needed to put in a background of impressionistic night sky behind the grass, which meant I had to fill in the spaces between the shards with even smaller, more randomly shaped bits. OY. Maria was having similar issues with her own piece across the table from me, & we took to calling the teeny random pieces “crumbs.” The fact that we found this as hilarious as we did is a testament to how slap-happy the mind can get after tweezering tiny glass pieces all night long.

Anyhow, I worked hard, and filled in every tiny speck of space. One really important thing I considered while placing the tesserae was contrast. I needed to make sure each individual part of the drawing would stand out and “read,” rather than blending in with what was around it. One example is that I deliberately kept the night sky lighter around the fox’s black legs and feet, so that they wouldn’t literally vanish into thin air. Here is the final layout:

All that tweezering paid off. Now it needed to be set onto the board and grouted.

And voila! I picked black grout for this, to help keep the night sky nice and dark. I think it gave a nice air of drama and magic. Then I painted the margin of the hardibacker board midnight blue. I took this picture out in natural sunlight, which brightens up the colors a bit more than looking at it indoors.

Here is a close-up of that pesky grass section:

See those tiny turquoise crumbs? Yikes. And here is a close-up of the finished fox and moon:

People who have looked at this have told me that they see a fox drinking by a stream, or a fox jumping in a field with the moon behind it. I like that people have come up with different takes on the image. Do you have a different one?