Thursday, September 07, 2017

Little Art # 3 and #4--Possibilities



So- I finally went up into the attic to see if I had more than the 6 inch square of the black with pink and gold flecks.  I had gotten thru almost all the boxes and shelving and was starting to feel like that fabric was just...gone.  I was shoving things back into that last container and as I shoved--the flecked fabric I was searching for--sort of popped up--like Kleenex in a box.

Anyway, I was so relieved.  I had almost a full yard.  It has always been my practice to buy yard cuts. It's the "need to have "enough" mentality I learned from my father and his mother who suffered in the Great Depression--they had nothing.  So--spent the remaining time on Earth making sure they always had more than enough.  Which leads to an amazing amount of empty jars, bottles, fabric and balls of string.  In my father's case--jars and jars of nails, screws and various metal things.

So--always buy a yard.

Up top the pictures are in the wrong order.  The bottom one is #3 where I added the newly found print to the bottom to make the piece a rectangle.  It also gives me more room to expand 'the story".  and then you have #4 which works off the Beasts in Jude Hill's work.  Now, yes, this is a copy of one of Jude's Beasts.  And it is NOT going to be the beast I use if I use a beast.  I just wanted to quickly see if a beast worked here.  And I think it does.  Mine might become a wolf howling at the moon.

So--comments are encouraged.  Sort of like the critique done at a workshop.

I had liked the beast on the square but it covered up most of the thread work and G protested.  The beast was closer to the moon and the house.  Protective.  I may still limit the expanse of the new fabric at the bottom and then be able to move the beast upward.

I read Jude Hill's Spirit Cloth blog everyday--digging into the archives for hours at a time.  And I LOVE the things she makes and the invisible stitch and the glue stitch and the "fake" appliqué method.  I use them all but my work can never look like hers.  I don't have baskets of old threadbare cloth.  I have "new" cloth.

So....often I am loving the method but not happy with the result due to my fabrics.  Colors. Etc.......
But I need to work with what I have.  Sometimes turning the fabric over and using what we would call "the wrong side".

Work yesterday was okay.  I got to go home early and was thrilled.  so, I can read the "writing on the wall" as they say.  Short-timer's attitude.  But the lunchroom had jelly donut holes and ice cream in the freezer.  And a big sunflower plant pulled out of the dumpster.  The birds are enjoying it.

2 comments:

Life Scraps and Patches said...

What color are you planning for the beast?

Joanne S said...

Well that depends on how much contrast I want--how important it is for the Beast to stand out and take over the piece.
I am thinking a buff color is it's a cat or grey if it is a wolf howling at the moon. A friend (artist) said the piece looked like the desert so that changes up the way I might go forward.