Sculpture and the Magic Solution

The endless vine pattern is thousands of years old.
It's also a devilishly difficult balancing act.
Don't believe me?
Try designing your own and find out how quickly it turns into a visually impassible, clumsy thicket.

Ara Pacis 9th Century BCE

I called Theresa Cheek  of Art's the Answer to see if she knew of any book on "the vine."
She suggested researching sign painting books, they might teach this kind of patterning.

Any of you out there know of any good resource on the endless vine?

Second attempt, left, was used to transfer design to back of attempt #3. Cutting the mylar from the back gave a cleaner look.

 This wedding gift of the couple's initials took three iterations to get right. I've cut, patterned and tooled the gold mylar on card stock to distinguish letters from vine and cutout from background.

This morning, I realized (again) that only way out is through the work.

While I'd love a magic solution, working through each step of design and cutting tells me the next necessary step. It that means starting over, so be it. But now I have that knowledge from making that mistake.  

The Magic solution is work.

Here it is framed up and ready to be packed for the trip to the wedding in New Hampshire!