This piece was made from mulberry paper covered with 20+ coats of beeswax medium, with embedded wire that is coated in wax, as well.  The surface design was made using a batik tjanting tool with encaustic paint, and powdered pigment was applied to the tips for their coloring.  I enjoyed sculpting the shape, and the challenge of making something hollow.  This vessel transmits much natural light through its walls, and emits further glow when lit with an LED votive (no flame!).

 I reflected on how much we hold inside ourselves... life experience, dreams, loss, a multitude of emotions, and gifts that have yet to be expressed in the world.  And I was typing these words, I began listening to Tina Turner in her "Love Within" album (amazing new album), in which she sings about honoring the divine mother within all of us... the embodiment of unconditional love.  She speaks of this love being within her and never having left her, and that she knows she can go beyond her history and her suffering-- beyond.  She reminds that this female power is within all of us, male and female,  and when we seek out this energy, it helps nourish values like love, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and tolerance.   What syncronicity to hear this music for the first time while I was struggling to find words to express this deep symbolism of vessel.  Thank you, Tina Turner, who stated in that song, "When words fail, turn to music".