Final Sugar Showpiece

A showpiece with bubble, blown, pulled, rock, and sand sugar, plus pastillage.

 To the left is my final sugar showpiece. It is not my best work, as there are many things I could have done to improve upon it. The main thing is that there are several interesting elements fine on its own, but as a whole did not quite work together. Also, my backboard base could have been much bigger. This would allow me more surface area to play with (plus meeting the 18" height requirement). In addition, some attention to detail would have helped. My pastillage was coarse and my sugar flower could have been more even (in terms of the petals). I tried my best with the mushrooms, and thought they turned out decent enough.

I think what I got caught up in was the inspiration for my piece. I was being too literal initially while creating my pieces, not abstract enough. I wanted to do a showpiece that reflected the main themes in Jack Kerouac's On the Road. So in my head I was loaded with visions of sugar blown mushrooms, mountain like bases, lotus flowers, pastillage smoke, and other trippy, psychedelic , Buddhist inspired icons. Well, my piece was trippy, but not in the sense I wanted.


 

My practice piece, with the mushroom and random "claw shelf"