Meet Barbara Clow
Winner, Intermediate Category, Journey Challenge
Congratulations to Barbara Clow, winner of the Intermediate category in the Journey Challenge! Her winning piece, Octopus’s Garden, is a charming copper cuff. On one side is a mother octopus, and on the other side are her eggs.
“I am often drawn to the sea and its imagery and meanings,” says Barbara. “This piece was inspired by the lifecycle of the octopus. A mother octopus lays her eggs, and then tends them: washing them, aerating them, and protecting them from predators. The teardrop beads symbolize the eggs, attached to a reef, on the cusp of hatching. Once the babies are born, however, the mother dies. Thus her journey ends when that of her offspring begins. The cuff itself – its circular shape – symbolizes this cycle of life, birth and death.”
Making the Cuff
The cuff is made of copper, white copper metal clay, and Miyuki glass teardrops and CZs. “When making it, I had to ensure that the head would be secure on the copper tubing and had to experiment with different materials to find something that would withstand the heat of firing white copper,” says Barbara. “I eventually hit upon some copper mesh, which I folded into the right shape and then wedged really securely into the tubing.”
Barbara gets together regularly with her metal clay friends to create and learn together. She also finds the AMCAW challenges to be terrific motivation. “They are great for getting me started and focusing my creativity on a specific theme. I try to make something for every one. I don’t always end up with a piece I can submit, but these competitions are really great for challenging me to try new techniques and tempt new projects.”
“The first time to enter a challenge was the hardest, but it gets easier each time because I am not really thinking about the judging, but rather about the project and that brings me joy. My advice to people thinking about entering a challenge is to go for it! You may have a piece already made that fits the challenge, or you may be inspired by the theme. Bounce ideas off friends and try something new.”
About Barbara
Barbara lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Halifax is the largest city in Canada’s Atlantic province. A self-described serial crafter, she has tried many different arts: sewing, knitting, crochet, painting, mosaic making, pottery, polymer clay, and more. She began working part-time in metal clay about ten years ago when she saw a description of a workshop with Pam Feindel and fell in love with metal clay on the very first day. She is always looking for ways to combine textiles and other media with metal clay.
