SHELLS OF THE BAHAMAS | Private Commission.
Alice got in contact with me through the commission enquiry form on my website. She had visited Keswick Hall and was drawn to the bird feathers I had created for the hotel in Virginia a few years ago. As she lives in the Bahamas, she wanted a collection of feathers that were native to the islands, to be displayed alongside a collection of paper shells. She also wanted a set of paper flowers, inspired by the plants that grew in her garden and local area.
After reading the enquiry form Alice had filled out, I wanted to know more about the local flora and fauna and try to get a feel of the islands as I have never visited them. I got in touch with Alice and asked if she could send me any photographs she had taken of her area or give me the names of any species she was particularly fond of and felt she had a connection with. She sent me lots of photographs she had taken of the birds and flowers in her garden as well as shells she had collected from the local beaches. I also started reading about the natural history of the Islands so I could learn more about the different types of habitats and what birds and sea life lived there.
Alice also provided me with the measurements and images of the space she wanted to hang the final pieces in. This made it much easier for me to design a display that fit perfectly and worked with the colour scheme already in the room.
Illustrations of some of the design ideas.
Once I felt I had a good idea of the different species I could create sculptures of, I started to sketch some of them out and played around with different ideas of layouts and colour schemes. In the end I sent 4 different design ideas, some of them were based around the feathers I had made for Keswick Hall and some were inspired by the shape of the shoreline and the way a feather floats. Alice chose the design she wanted to go with and I started making.
Paper shells were not something I had a lot of experience making so this part of the commission was the biggest challenge of the whole thing. Before starting on the final design, I tested a few different sculpting techniques to make sure my plan would work before committing to making them. The techniques I went with worked well for the shapes I was trying to create. They took a little longer to dry than I had originally planned for which meant the whole project took a couple of weeks longer than I had anticipated but it was worth it for the extra details these techniques added to the final shells.
The Bahamas | Recycled Paper, Wire and Thread | each frame 45 x 45 cm | 2025.
When the sculptures were finished, I arranged them and photographed them to make sure Alice was happy with the display before mounting them to the backing board. As this display had taken so long to make it was nice to have a point where I could check in with Alice and get her involved in the process again before the final piece was shipped. Sometimes at this point, I am asked if I can swap the sculptures around and display them in a different order, but Alice was really happy with the way I had arranged them, so I mounted them in their displays and carefully packed them ready for shipping.
“I am beyond thrilled with these. They make me so happy every time I look at them..”
- Alice
These pieces took around 2 months to research and design and then another 5 months to build. This was quite a long project as there were a lot of parts that needed careful consideration and experimentation to make sure the final piece could included all the small and unique details I value in nature.
If you would like to talk about commissioning a piece you can fill out the commission enquiry form here, or email me at hello@katekato.com.
