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I started making ceramic wall snakes about 6 years ago. In particular, I adore our wall snake (it comes in large and mini). I love that it can be mixed into a gallery wall (adding a bit of wiggle), be hung next to a mirror or cabinet, or even in that awkward strip of wall by a doorway.
In the past year, customers have been asking me to make a wall snake that could be hung horizontally above framed photos or a window. So, last year, I gave the horizontal wall snake a whirl. It turned out cute, but I wasn't 100% happy with it. Honestly, I designed it so it would fit in the same box we use to ship our vertical wall snakes.
Over this past year, I have sold the horizontal snakes at craft shows, I've shipped them out across the US, and even hung one in my own home. But every time I pack one up, or walk by the one in my living room, I think, "Hmmm, you're cute, just not IT."
From their initial inception in 2019, I never designed my clay snakes to fit into a particular box so shipping or transport would be easy. Believe me, making ceramic snakes and "easy shipping," do NOT go hand in hand. So I decided to rework the horizontal wall snake from scratch, with my original open-ended mindset, and without the confines of a rectangular limit. I wanted to make a horizontal design that came from an organic place based in creating the right shape, versus a shape that "works" for commerce.
So I thought about two things when I was redesigning the horizontal snake: what my customers love about our vertical wall snake, and what they don't love about the horizontal snake. The vertical wall snake is whimsical, has an open and easy wiggle, feels organic, and it has a softness to its shape- a ceramic waterfall of snake shape. The vertical snake is gorgeous in its simplicity.
The original horizontal snake felt a bit forced in it's shape. The "S" wiggles were tight and even, in both height and spacing. They were missing that easy, organic feel. So with this feedback and imagery in mind, I rolled out a long coil of clay a let my hands create a horizontal shape that felt easy, organic and soft.
I spent a few hours re-wiggling and re-shaping. I stepped back from time to time and looked at the shape. I even fired and glazed a whole round of my initial designs, photographed them, and then decided they still needed some tweaking. After a few more rounds of more wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, I landed on a shape that I love.
This final round of the reimagined horizontal snake is done, and I truly love her.
I also loved this whole process. It was a good reminder that creativity does not have a period at the end of an idea. It is okay to step back and reconsider, redo, redesign, and rethink. I love that I gave myself the opportunity to try again, and also that I gave myself the okay to let something go...
No, this new horizontal snake doesn't fit into a specific box, but I'll figure that part out next.