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Archive for July, 2010

Mark Making Part 2

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

First, I want to say thanks for all the really nice comments about my sunset piece. While I was working on it I thought of other possibilities for the technique. I wanted to see what would happen if I just made marks on organza and cut it up and reassembled it. So that is what is going on here. The marks I made the other day got a splatter of red, as you can see. I sewed the little pockets and have done a preliminary arrangement on a white background. It has a grid pattern. I need to get a solid color. I like the way the lines and dots play. I will paint some more tomorrow.

Here is my latest fiber sketch. I used a few of the leftover purple/yellow pieces.


Mr C is redoing the irrigation in our front yard. Scooter likes hang out an supervise. The original irrigation was metal pipes probably installed back in the 50s. It is nice and rusty so I am hanging on to a few pieces to do some rusty shibori.

Sunset

Thursday, July 1st, 2010


This is my interpretation of the Twelve by Twelve purple/yellow color play theme. Last January, the Portland Art Museum had an exhibit of current trends in design and architecture in China. I saw this bird and a couple of other items that were made with organza pojagi.

I have tried to enlarge the bird from a low res photo. It was lit from the inside and had a lovely glow. I was very taken with it and filed the idea away for a future project. And so I attempted to do my version of this.

I first painted silk organza with purple and yellow Dynaflow paint.

I then cut strips of the painted fabric and stitched them together.

At this point, I experimented with how to finish the pockets. I cut the strips into 2 1/2 inch pieces. I tried doing French seams, but it was not working for me. Then, I thought about leaving frayed edges, but for this piece, that seemed wrong. I finally set my machine to stitch the tightest stitch possible and then trimmed the seam allowance close to the stitching.

I fell in love with each of these little pieces. Each side was a lovely little composition on its own.

I decided that I had to finish the backing completely before attaching the organza pieces.

I used the cotton fabric that was under the organza when I painted it so it worked seamlessly. I did the back in two pieces and hand stitched the closure.

The last photo shows the two pieces handstitched together. I really liked this method of doing a backing. The rod pocket will cover the seam.

My next task was to lay out the organza pieces in a pleasing way. I wanted to interpret one of those crazy gorgeous sunsets with purples and golds.

I then did the overlapping on the background fabric, pinning and then basting each row in place. I did a zigzag stitch across the row which is under the next row.

I was not thrilled with how unfinished the top looked and decided to add a row of beads. Now, I wonder if that was a mistake. Here it is without. What do you think?

I love working with organza. I have other ideas for this percolating in my brain. Stay tuned.