Of course last week seeming craftless ish wasn’t helped by me having the dread lurgy and posting a day earlier than usual. John decided to join in with the sneezing and general nose blowing so we’ve had a wonderful week!
This year is Dorset Art Weeks and I also have another exhibition to do some work for. I really have plenty of made pieces around the house but it’s always nice to try and do something new. Each time I have done one of my large ammonite pieces they have gone very quickly so I have been mulling over doing another. I had a lovely afternoon just printing up a piece of cloth, just layers and layers.
While I had everything out I dug out some spare work given to me by Linda Monk last year which she had put some of her print transfers on and I added some new layers with gesso, modelling paste and paint.
Of course all the lovely colour Linda had already added made the backgrounds really interesting. These hung around the studio for a while and stopped talking to me. I tipped out some of my weird fabrics and played around with one of the thick tweedy types and some silk chiffon and ended up with some good shapes which I was pleased with.
On the background they were ok but nothing was speaking to me. I pinned on a few more bits. Silence. Added some stitch. Even more silence. For over a week I’ve been faffing about with it and it’s totally sent me to Coventry.
I’ve set it to one side as I was going to cut it up, it is huge at 1.5 m x 5 m. Then I thought perhaps not today while I’m angry with it. Instead I noticed the little pieces I’d made and they were positively screaming at me!
Stitch is building nicely on these but I’ll show you when I’m a little further on.
View From Our Hill 
Gosh, I really like that length of cloth heavily printed. I’m always afraid or at least loath to do that overlapping when printing but whenever I do, I’m more excited with the results. Your individual prints are fantastic. Looking forward to seeing the stitching.
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When I told someone that most of it won’t be seen as it will be worked over someone gasped and said whatever for! I told her because it is only background and gives the piece depth. It may not be seem in the end but it will be there holding everything else up. I had fun doing it too.
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You are absolutely right about the amount of depth something like this brings to the finished piece, and I am way too cautious in my approach to surface design. I have no problem cutting up complicated designed batik fabric or using it at background to build on but there’s something about my being involved in the process that changes my perception. Gotta get over that! It helps to see how someone else works. I keep thinking of one quilt artist I followed that would add stamping all over her piece once it was done and even quilted. I’d be sitting there saying “NOOOOOO!” fearful that she would take something so wonderful and totally ruin it. But of course, when she was through adding the overall stamping, it was even better. I’m just too full of fear about failed outcomes, the idea that I’ve spent time and money and in the end might have wasted both. But then one never learns what one needs to learn if ruled by that. I’m slowly gaining confidence in the art of trial and error! Slowly learning that there’s not that much to lose. 🙂
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We put our own underwear on so our clothes look good. We don’t have someone else do it. 😄 Anyway the fun part is the journey and what would you do with your time and money otherwise!
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Some crafts definitely need to be put away to “mature” … or to allow the maker to fall back in love with them again!
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I’ll find a use for it sometime. 😊
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