A Recipe for a Perfect Start

This piece was created for a friend getting married to her perfect fit. I chose this when I was trying to decide “what did I want to give them?” I came up with the idea that I wanted to create a piece of my interpretations of how couples best keep a marriage as their ‘perfect fit’ for all the years of their future. Hopefully, and with many prayers to them and their future, theirs will be one of those ‘lifetime’ marriages with all the sweetness, joys, blessings and love that overflows their every step and futures as one.

Marriage isn’t about being perfect or having the perfect person, but about being your best. Giving the best of your efforts and contributions; to keep the ‘perfect’ that you do have, the best it can be. It’s about doing what you can to make the other person (even other people in your house/family) have and be as much of the ‘perfect’ that they can have as well. Marriage is compromise, communication, commitment, and courtesy. When one or two is given, another one follows; because they work together. When we can give and or receive any of them, they make us feel better about all the things to be done and that we have already had to work with.

The inspiration for this project came from seeing this couple at the beginning of their relationship and their interactions together. Seeing their true efforts at being the best of themselves, so that they could give the best to the other. As well as when looking through some of my usual ‘inspirational sources’ (google and my fav site Pinterest😊😊) a large selection of wedding gift options were wall hangings of ‘a marriage recipe’ with most having similar wordings and design styles to each other, but nothing that said, “that’s the perfect choice”. Until I came to the idea of ‘borrowing bits from some and creating parts of the rest’; and then my mind said, “that’s the perfect fit”. Knowing this couple is Christian minded, added a bit of inspiration to incorporate some scripture for reminders, strength, and love to them and their future together. As an added bonus, for this piece that I loved, is it allowed me to add the marriage verse of Mark 10:8-9.

Now that I decided the piece was to be “a marriage recipe”, and knowing marriage and love go together, the idea of having some part saying “mix it all together in a big pot..” with lots of hearts and love all over the piece, was a reoccurring and driven thought till finally deciding I really wanting to incorporate a large stockpot, to say 'mix together/simmer', “But how? How could I incorporate a STOCK POT?? into a wedding gift/wall display??” Just the right wording had to be used to make it ‘work perfectly’, for both the look and for the words themselves.

As the creating process of the project continues to progress and all the pieces are found (wording; fonts; scriptures,..) design and layout can begin. Some of the designing choices to be made, is of the overall style of the whole piece, (Farmhouse Chic, Rustic, Modern and Clean Lines, Eclectic, etc.). For that it's helpful to personally know the client and or to ask some ‘telling details’ (some questions I ask to learn more of the person's personality and preferences). Questions of this sort give me an insight into the person's style of who is receiving the commissioned work and or the reasoning for it. In this case, it was decided to create the piece as a wall display of wood planks to resemble a pallet wood art piece with wood burning the words and images on it. The wood planks then can be made to fit a variety of styles with paint, stain, and or additional pieces attached to the surface that fit that design, or can be left as is for a natural look with just a seal coat.

Once I have all the ‘background’ details set, and created the images I plan to use, I am ready to begin working with the layout and placement of each of the different elements. There is a lot of planning and designing that goes into each project I create; and occasionally some of the first design elements I decide on might get changed many times, and or even ‘thrown out’ once build time comes. It’s a part of my artistic mind working and creating the visual representation of what the was first in my imagination, to make it become art the art and gift its intended to be. Finally, I am ready to begin drawing and burning the wood.

The finished piece is exactly what my mind had seen at the beginning, and each step through the designing process; but I am still amazed (and quite possibly I always will be) at how well it turned out. I love the look the whole piece displays and hope the couple has that ‘lifetime marriage’ with many years of blessings for their future.