Vessels for the Journey

I have been working on this idea on and off for awhile. It's been very difficult to focus on anything for quite awhile now with my Father having been so ill, but this morning I decided to do a little work. Didn't go all that well, but at least I made a little something. This is basically what I have in mind for the "Vessels of the Journey Collection". This is a rather poor scan of what I came up with, but it gives the basic idea. The face is made of fired clay and is hollow in the back. The inside is collaged and has charms floating loosely in it. The back is then covered with a piece of glass to encase these objects and is soldered shut. I plan to expand on this concept by adding many differently shaped vessels.

The photos open to much larger and more detailed images of the piece. The collage work on the inside includes the printing "Within the heart of the universe, lies the void of eternal space", a silver key, a star, a ring of balance, tiny gold glass spheres and very fine antique brass angel hair. The size of the face is 1 1/2" X 2". Overall size including the beading is 2" X 5 1/2". This makes for a rather large piece, but I rather like the size. I have also made clay faces about 1/2 of this size to make smaller pieces. I am planning to make a 1/2 moon (based on the poem "My Father's Moon"), the Venus of Wallendorf and a heart shape. Many more shapes come to mind, but I think I will just start with those. I have had so little motivation for the past several months, but will try very hard to get this whole concept off the ground.