Aspire Spiritile

"The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there."Vince Lombardi

Suspended above the earth, partway through the ascent, a dangerous question enters the mind: Am I prepared to make the summit? Despite the readying before the climb, doubts about our capacity to reach the top creep in. When we imagine the person at the top of the mountain, what we see is the summit and accomplishment. What we often miss is the mental struggle of solitude and doubt during the climb. Being so close to the mountain the climber is blind to what lay above, but sees so much behind and below to tempt turning back. To succeed we must have faith and take the next visible steps.

Spiritiles are made by firing glass powders on copper until they become molten and fuse to the copper surface. Each is 8.5'' x 5.5'' x 2'', ready to hang. Along with the image on the front, an accompanying quote appears along the side with attribution on the top edge. Each Spiritile is carefully handmade using a series of intricate stencil techniques. From the beginning, Houston Llew’s vision for his enameled artworks drew from the beauty of simplicity. He sought after an imagistic theme for his work rather than pursuing the abstract often seen in other enameled wall art. The image is just the beginning - each piece is paired with a quote sgraffitoed around the sides to create an inspiring story through words and images in glass. After firing, a pin is rolled over the enameled metal to form intentional crazing marks in the glass.