A Trilobite Adventure
Early in 2020, I was out on my daily sanity walk when I happened upon some painted rocks along the path. They were covered in affirmations and made me smile. In a time when it was scary to be around other people, it felt like a connection to other scared humans. We were all in this together. I came home determined to do something similarly connecting.
The idea to create sculptures of trilobites decorated like tea cups came to me “out of nowhere”. Which is to say, my brain took a bunch of different parts of my life and mashed them together. I’m fascinated with early life in the ocean, especially in the Cambrian period. (I hope to someday visit the Burgess Shales in British Columbia.) Trilobites are the quintessential survivors. They survived many extinction events. That was something inspirational at the start of Covid 19. I had my starting idea.
During Covid 19 I spent a part of everyday sitting at my window with a cup of tea. I spent this time doing things that had nothing to do with the pandemic going on outside. I listened to podcasts while crocheting. I read books. I wrote physical letters and postcards to friends. I watched the seasons change outside my window. It became an oasis of calm in my life. To remind myself to take this calm time for myself I posted a daily photo of my morning tea. Surprisingly to me, others found my tea photos reassuring. Those tea cups gave me inspiration for decorating my trilobite sculptures.
Pretty early on I knew that I wanted to make LOTS of trilobites. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to create molds. I made the original trilobites out of sculpty then went in search of some way to make a mold of them. After watching videos by other artists, I settled on silicon for my molds. It took a few tries, but eventually I had my initial test piece. I used plaster for those first attempts, but it was pretty clear that it wouldn’t stand up to weather. So I tried a few other materials before settling on hydrostone. I painted them with acrylic and quickly discovered that a protective coating was needed. While acrylic is great for painting on hydrostone, it peeled off in the rain. While I intend for these trilobite pieces to be transient (they will weather and break and find new homes), I want them to last long enough for others to find them and enjoy them.
Finally, in the fall of 2021 I had the details worked out and started production on a larger scale. As of the launching of this website, I have about 50 trilobites ready to go. I’m going to travel around Ottawa and the surrounding area setting them free into their next life. I’m also sending them to some friends and fellow artists for them to leave around their homes and travels. I’m posting photos of where I leave them and hope that anybody who finds them will send me photos too.
