Art in Fabric

Symphony ......

Starting out on a new series with a mixture of paint and collage, I set some parameters for the series in terms of size, colour palette and mix of substrates etc.

And yet it felt a bit overwhelming with all I had learned in the change to working with paint and collage and the many ways of putting it all together!

While I was contemplating getting started and perhaps procrastinating a little bit! …… Daniel Pink’s book , ‘A Whole New Mind’ crossed my path. This is not a new book, it was published in 2008. It’s main premise is that the future belongs to right brain thinkers and outlines 6 fundamental elements that will be essential to professional success and personal fulfilment.

What was most interesting to me was the concept of ‘symphony’ . It is the idea of seeing the connections between diverse and seemingly separate elements and putting them together to create something new by working across boundaries, by inventing new combinations or by understanding one thing in terms of something else ie using metaphor. In other words the work of the artist!

Daniel Pink has lots of suggestions for developing this skill of symphony, for example:-

- listen to the great symphonies,

- follow the links ie “choose a topic you find interesting and type it into a search engine and follow one of the links. From this initial site select one of its links and venture on’

- keep a metaphor log writing down compelling and surprising metaphors you encounter.

He also suggested creating an inspiration or mood board “each time you see something that you find compelling - a photo, a piece of fabric, the page of a magazine - tack it to the board. Before long you will start to see connections between images that will enliven and expand your work”

So the mood board became a key resource and starting place for the new series and as it continues to develop and change so does the artwork!

Here is how the series is looking so far …

I am looking forward to seeing how it continues to develop and will definitely be building ‘symphony’ practice and mood/inspiration boards into my ongoing practice and art process.

Thanks for reading …. I appreciate your time and interest. CC



Green Replenished!

After all that green work,   the fabric stash was looking decidedly bare ....  so this week I have started dyeing fabric for the work ahead ........  I say 'started'  because I've already made inroads into this batch!! 

I dyed about 10 mtrs of cotton poplin,  mostly fat quarters but also some half metre and a few metre pieces for larger backgrounds   ... I love the surprising combinations that come from Ann Johnston's "color parfait's" (See Anne's  book  'Color by Accident'  - one of my favorite references on fabric dyeing).  I worked with mixes of a number of green and  blue dyes for most of the fabrics then added a bit of antique gold and peach!

Just as well I made plenty of greens ... quite a few pieces are just right for the Grevillea piece I have just started work on!!!  The next batch of colors is planned as soon as the new PDF fabric arrives!!!

Clearly my recent work says 'green' is high on my list of favorites!!!  What does your work say about your favorite color??  

Thanks for dropping by ............  CC

 

Stitch First Applique Later!

With my new Grevillea piece I reversed my usual construction process by stitching the background before the applique!  Now this is not a new idea but one I've avoided because I like the flexibility that finalising the composition first allows.  Stitching first requires a bit of a leap of faith!  

Step one was stitching the background.  Doing the stitching first makes the process very easy, no shapes to navigate around so the stitching is very fluid and it's easy to achieve a good result.  It also helps to integrate any additions/variations in the background design.

With this piece I added the applique shapes in two steps.  Firstly the main structure of the flower and the leaves and secondly the overlapping flower shapes, stitching them down as I built up the design.

If you have followed previous posts you will know that I have had quite some issues with skipped stitches.  These skipped stitches occur because of movement in the layers as the needle  passes through multiple layers and are very frustrating!!!  By stitching the background first this issue is not longer of concern!!   So making this piece has been a much more enjoyable experience .......

                   'Peaches & Cream' - Grevillea 3   © Carolyn Collins 2017   16" x 16"  

                   'Peaches & Cream' - Grevillea 3   © Carolyn Collins 2017   16" x 16"  

Have you tried stitching first and what did you think about the process???

Thanks for dropping by .....  CC

 

Monoprints in Green

This week I've been concentrating on two things ....

Completing  the stitching on a pair of small monoprints in green .....

 I'm really pleased with the subtle quality of these prints and I'm enjoying the stitching!  

The second focus for this week was the opening of our drawing class exhibition today .....  I helped with the hanging of the exhibition yesterday and was very interested to see how our class teacher,  an exhibiting artist herself,  approached this task.  There was a wide variety of art works to hang and the end result is a terrific display and it all came together very nicely ... here are a couple of photo's from the day .....

So its been a good week.  Thanks for dropping by ..............CC

Grevillea Series #2

This week I've been working on stitching the second Grevillea  piece ....   the applique and the quilting stitches .....

                                                              Stitching  "Grevillea 2"

                                                              Stitching  "Grevillea 2"

It's all come together well with no dramas, even with the layer of printed organza.  Using reverse applique for the background has meant there are not too many layers to stitch through!!  Here is the result ................

       "Grevillea 2"       © CarolynCollinsArt 2016    16" x 20"   Hand dyed and printed fabric

       "Grevillea 2"       © CarolynCollinsArt 2016    16" x 20"   Hand dyed and printed fabric

I'm happy with this piece  ....  although I can see things I could do differently!!   So there  is definitely another piece to follow ..... its a Series thing!!!  

Just the backing and facing and a "name"  for the piece to go ....

Thanks for checking out my new work .....  CC

More Monoprinting ....

I've had inspiration about some monoprints I made recently ....  

After the first series of monoprints which I framed as individual prints,  I tried printing a larger piece of fabric with the idea that I would cut it up and work with the smaller pieces.

Nice idea but I still wasn't sure where I was going with these monoprints  .... till I was sorting out some of my hand dyed fabric and found some pieces that seemed just right  .... and here is the result .....

The red brown strip was initially a bit stark so I added some paintstik rubbings to soften the effect ....  I'm very pleased with the result so now for the quilting !!!

In fact I was so pleased thought I'd do a little more monoprinting .....

MonoprintGreen1.jpg

So I'm looking for green fabrics  ......

Thanks for dropping by  ....   CC