Julie Edmunds creates mosaic and glass art with strong, bold colours at its heart. Her early work was in textile design, which has influenced the texture, colour and movement present in her art. Here, Julie writes about the inspiration and process behind her recently finished piece Indian Rope Trick.
BY JULIE EDMUNDS
Using rope as an image has been an idea I’ve toiled with for some time, so I began doodling little pieces of rope. As the doodles took on a life of their own, an image came to me of a sweeping piece of rope across a wall and that’s how Indian Rope Trick was born.
I initially envisioned each strand of rope in a different colour to highlight the pattern and flow of the weave. But, like a lot of small ideas, they grow and develop, and my ideas tend to become more complex as they develop.
The idea evolved into making each strand into an intricate pattern with its own identity and specific colour palette.
Anyone familiar with my work will see that I love fabric and textiles, so taking the detail of this idea to the next level was a natural progression for me.
So I decided to use Indian textiles and design as a basis for each design. I researched fabrics, architecture, colour palettes, patterns and images that embedded in Indian culture and then I was ready to get my board and begin.
As always, I start with a very rough outline in pencil on the board and once I’m happy the design is taking shape, I mark the lines in with black ink.
Beginning on a large piece of work can be overwhelming, and I find it much more effective to focus on smaller sections at a time. I love being able to clean a colour palette away and start the next day with a whole new array of colours and designs.
So, I treated each strand of the rope as a separate piece of work, I just wanted to focus on a vivid piece of work with a variety of colours and contrasting designs.
As an artist I tend to work in a very organic way and let the ideas take their natural shape rather than trying to plan too much. I work as I go and always have my fingers crossed it comes together in the end!
My artwork involves using a variety of materials and, on this piece, I used glass beads, copper foil tiles, stained glass, mirror and pieces that I fuse in my kiln.
Once all the strands were independently created, I set the whole piece on a black background of stained glass to really highlight the intensity of colour and design it involves.
The final stage is grouting and polishing the whole piece, and then the artwork is complete.
About Julie
Julie Edmunds is a mixed media mosaic artist based in the UK. She likes nothing better than immersing herself in her little garden studio experimenting with different types of glass and mixed media and creating vividly coloured pieces of wall art. She currently resides in Hertfordshire with her very patient husband, a naughty teenage daughter, a cool Scottish terrier and two very chilled tortoises.
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