Wood
Wood is sourced mostly from Cornish gardens; some recycled foreign woods are used for durability. It is turned to reveal the dark heartwood in a bowl made from the whole diameter, lighter sap outside, hollowed within. Now, it is put to dry for months, then sanded as many grades as needed, and Danish oil is added for a safe, protective finish.
A bowl form seems best to represent trees integrity, thin or thick, graceful, or robust as a tree may be, practical for fruit or salad or as wild and random for the beauty.
Local trees from Cornwall tell universal stories of life in their grainy brown like old photos, from before you were born.
Saw chisel and plane and lots of sanding refine the form. Yew elm larch apple cherry and ginkgo all have their different texture and colours to show.
These works offer a point of view of nature, that trees share our vertical landscape.
Trees have radial form reaching out and upwards, the way of all life. Trees as companions since the stick and stone age.
The language is to invoke a mood,
Much more than to describe the work as an object
So it’s about qualities that show its presentness
Rugged, raw, part polished surfaces
Natural flow of the edge takes your eye
Sapwood to heartwood
Timeline of annual rings, left as casual tideline…
Of its life so far, still slowly receding…
We may share its graceful demise, its leaving flourish, its absence
Follow it into silence, ‘as deep as we have courage.’
— Samvado
Susie C. Breeze
PYROGRAPHIC ARTIST
From the Greek, pur (fire) and graphos (writing), pyrography is the act of “writing with fire”. This ancient elemental art form has been practised worldwide since before the dawn of recorded history.
From these prehistoric designs created using the charred remains of fires, decorating wood or other materials with burn marks has evolved and become the art form it is today. Each piece of wood is a precious and unique gift from nature. The artist must connect with their material. Some wood is soft and requires lower burning temperatures.
Some wood is harder and requires higher temperatures. Each piece is cared for individually. After all, the trees and mother nature care for us, giving us oxygen, without which we could not live.
The wood from the trees comes to us, and to me, the artist with her hot wire pen. It comes shaped and smoothed from the sea or fresh and fragrant from a friend’s garden. What could be a better canvas than life itself?
To learn more about Pyrography, click the button.
Sculpture in Cornwall
