Richard Schafermeyer

United States

“ Pale Sanctuary “

"I started by reading the definition of sanctuary and decided I wanted to express the concepts of safe haven, worship, and tranquility vs. chaos. That led to a design of a soaring temple with light gray side walls and a blue central panel. Silver highlights adorn the panels and also a tree medallion at the top center. To reach sanctuary, the figure has climbed a steep hill, crossed a bridge that spans a crater filled with lava, and stands at the temple’s doorway contemplating a healing crystal inside. The crystal is enclosed by pale gray walls with a white floor to emphasize light. The silver highlights reflect nature’s ability to soothe and comfort while the lava represents chaos and danger.

The building, figure, bridge, and lava are enameled copper. I used 30 gauge sheet which had some but manageable warpage. The silver highlights were made with a silver powder that is fired then buffed to a shine. The base is Sculptamold, a plaster-paper fiber compound that was formed and painted to look like rock. There are folded tabs at the bottom of the building walls which were embedded in the wet plaster to support them securely. The back square chamber is sturdy on its own with a nichrome wire (hidden in the plaster) at the base to keep it rectangular. In hindsight I should have left copper tabs along the sides and top of the panels to act as trivets during firing and then be used to tie the three front panels together.

One thing the Enamel Jam reminded me of was that I work best when a design is constrained by size or topic. An open-ended “create anything” usually leaves me with spinning wheels trying to decide what to do. Getting two words as a theme was a great catalyst, as I instantly had ideas spring to mind. I sketched them out first, made a small clay and paper model to refine them, then a full sized one out of paper to confirm the size would fit my kiln. Final dimensions are 6.25 by 6.5 inches by 8 inches tall."

richschafermeyer.com