Sarah Cushing

United States

“ Courageous Aurora “

"The prompt ""Coregeous Aurora"" inspired pages of intricate themes and compositions, which ultimately distilled into a series of gentle curves overflowing with color. Creating a piece capturing the ephemeral hues of the aurora borealis proved sufficiently courageous without symbolic metaphors! Slashes of bright green, teal, and pink transition through darker shades to fade into the deep blue-black of space. The hues of the color gradients contain shifting depths that evoke the cosmic phenomena' dynamic undulations.

I started enameling a little over a year ago; this is my third cloisonne piece. I'm thrilled with the results of this challenge. Notable among the multitudes of lessons is that grinding down a 'mistake' is a significant commitment without guaranteed outcomes. I accidentally ground down a luminous color gradient to remove minor cloudiness in the flux above it. The second attempt layered a darker shade over the lighter layers resulting in an odd floating effect. There were other less painful lessons. Even the less reactive pinks are as tricky as advertised over silver. This led to using gold for the first time. The reflected light added a more intense orange tint to the pink than I anticipated but contrasted well against the other colors."

@scush43 (Instagram)