Once I had decided the subject for my first set of New style paperweights, I had to make each Planet show the most obvious known details of it as of 1969. I visited the local library and read every book I could find on Astronomy, and noted all the details of all the Planets.
Mars I read, was the fourth planet from the Sun, and had two satellites, Phobos and Deimos. It's red colour could be seen from earth, and in mythologigal terms, Mars was the God of war ! Therefore I made a swirling, angry, bubbly, vibrant red form, with two silvery spheres floating above it--- the satellites Phobos and Deimos.
Mercury, was the innermost planet of the solar system and had no satellites, so I resorted to the myth used by secretive glassmakers for centuries, that a Bubble within glass was actually a ball of Quicksilver, or Mercury ! I used a large silvery sphere floating over an interesting multi coloured ground for my interpretation of the planet Mercury , and it was very successful.
Saturn, was relatively easy to design, as nearly everyone knows it is the planet with the "Rings" around it. Paul Ysart told me how to create the ring, and the colour I chose was vibrant blue.
The last challenge was Venus. I knew Venus was the Goddess of Love, but little else, but my library book told me that it was almost the same size as Earth, and that the surface was a vast rocky plain, and was the brightest celestial object after the Sun and the Moon.. I played up the Love angle, and designed two entwined forms rising from a mystical ground within a star- studded panorama.
|
