The Shadow of the Wind

I know I have used the title of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s fantastic novel, but I couldn’t find another title that seemed right for this piece. “Shadows of the Wind” or “Wind Shadows” just didn’t do it for me – it had to be solid, contained and absolute!

The mosaic isn’t directly inspired by the novel , although the book as well as others he has written, all have a mysterious and ominous thread running right through them, and that is why I like them. (The three books The  Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven are all set in Barcelona – another reason for liking them!)

The main inspiration for this piece came from the shadow of this tree I spotted whilst out walking on a bright but windy day.

I loved the way the branches made curly shadows that crossed over each other on the grass below.

I made a drawing for my mosaic…

I liked the idea of making the mosaic all in black and grey except for the sun. Apart from the matt mottled (white with black) ceramic tile of the “wind” lines , I  completed the sky with vitreous glass tiles and wanted to use matt ceramic for the landscape, however my grey tiles had a touch of brown in them and  didn’t look good next to the blue grey of the sky. So I decided to use green matt ceramic that were quite subtle against the sky.

I am hoping to make one more new piece for my exhibition “Voices of the Wind” at Somerset Crafts.

Come Back Soon 🙂