One of my aspirations with the 'Breakthrough' theme besides the imagery of the breakwaters was to 'repurpose' old textiles . Having put a coat of gesso on a section of old Durham quilt (sacrilege!) I auditioned my stash of kasuri (ikat) pieces acquired in Japan. Their texture summoned up for me a lot of the qualities of the worn , textured wood of the breakwaters.
From a scale drawing of my Photoshop sketches, in fear and trepidation, I cut slits in the quilt and inserted roughly assembled structures of kasuri- I wanted to maintain that 3D rustic quality. From the left overs, I made the sample piece required.
Then the fun part (tho' I'm not sure my machine thought so - a lot of dust was generated by the gesso) , stitching wave and ripple patterns in variegated thread and using white perle cotton in the bobbin and stitching from the back (now that was a challenge!)
Having complete stitching the sample, I realised that I needed a further test piece for practising painting on so I hastily constructed a 'toile' , drawing in the breakwater shapes with marker pen.
Next step painting - the subject of my next post!
One of my aspirations with the 'Breakthrough' theme besides the imagery of the breakwaters was to 'repurpose' old textiles . Having put a coat of gesso on a section of old Durham quilt (sacrilege!) I auditioned my stash of kasuri (ikat) pieces acquired in Japan. Their texture summoned up for me a lot of the qualities of the worn , textured wood of the breakwaters.
From a scale drawing of my Photoshop sketches, in fear and trepidation, I cut slits in the quilt and inserted roughly assembled structures of kasuri- I wanted to maintain that 3D rustic quality. From the left overs, I made the sample piece required.
Then the fun part (tho' I'm not sure my machine thought so - a lot of dust was generated by the gesso) , stitching wave and ripple patterns in variegated thread and using white perle cotton in the bobbin and stitching from the back (now that was a challenge!)
Having complete stitching the sample, I realised that I needed a further test piece for practising painting on so I hastily constructed a 'toile' , drawing in the breakwater shapes with marker pen.
Next step painting - the subject of my next post!
Margaret, I am finding your bog absolutely inspirig - thankyou for your generosity in all that you share, best wishes, Chris
ReplyDeleteI don't think my machine could cope with stitching through gesso. Someone ought to design one that could!
ReplyDeleteWOW!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat work! Love all the stitching.
ReplyDelete