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Alternative Materials
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Siesta Sun Headboard
Artist: Wendy Carlson-Hunter (Tucson, AZ)
Honorable Mention, Alternative Materials
"In the summer of 2003, I lost all of my artwork in the Aspen Fire that scorched over 80,000 acres and 330 homes, including ours, in the Catalina Mountains North of Tucson, Arizona. That included two small gift shops that carried my various creations. Any artist will tell you that each piece is like a child to them. I found myself engulfed in grief and didn’t even know if I could find the creativity inside me to pick up the pieces and start over. My husband and I decided to remodel our bedroom but were at a loss as to what to use as a headboard for our bed (which was tucked into what used to be a closet!) The main spark came when I was going through some items that belonged to my grandfather who passed away in 1999. He had made a big sun face out of wood that was not so beautiful, so I had hid it away thinking some day I would find a good home for it. After pulling the initial one apart I found it to be in poor condition. So I set out to refurbish what I could and construct what was deteriorated. After I made the initial sun rays I decided I wanted a piece that made me smile! I just couldn’t resist using the overly happy terra cotta sun as the center. Everyone thought I was crazy! Being on a budget, that’s how I got the idea of making it into a headboard. Why not wake up to a smiling face every morning! The size alone was a challenge. At three feet, eight inches I knew it would take several pounds of beads. But I never anticipated that it would take almost four months to complete. Each of the sixteen sunrays [contains] at least one pound of beads. I used a combination of different bead
styles to create a mosaic look. After applying glue to the wood, I placed each bead in its place by hand. I repeated the same process on the sun face. The center sun face was done in the same manner using only seed beads. It has about half of a kilo of beads on it. I also used three large bottles of glue! I think my grandfather is looking down on it and smiling back!" — Wendy Carlson-Hunter
Review the 2005 contest details to see what this contestant was up against. Or check out the 2004 contest winners.
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