BJP Preparation

Here are pix of an experimental piece in progress and taken off the tubular frame I used as a loom. I thought I'd use the Colinette yarns to crochet or knit it onto the end of a scarf, but then decided it will be the spine of the turquoise folder I bought to house my 2008 Bead Journal Project (BJP) notes.
Yes, I've signed up for the 2008 Bead Journal Project!. As I have difficulty doing the same thing twice, it will be a real challenge to stay with the same size for the 12 months, so I spent a few days thinking through a size that I could work with, finally coming up with a rectangle based on the Fibonacci series 1,1,2,3,5,8. I cut off the 1,1 and ended up with a rectangle that measures 10 x 18 (2,3,5 x 2,3,5,8), and decided on centimetres instead of inches. This gives me enough room for detailed beading as well as embroidery.
I also decided that the September piece will be based on the ripening field of sunflowers next door - it has been so dry here that they look like dessicated skeletons soldiering on, their leaves hanging in tatters. It makes me feel sorry for them but proud that they are so strong - is it a cultural thing, inherited from our collective consciousness of Van Gogh's passion or just a simple human reaction, anthropomorphising nature? Does it matter? If it touches me as an artist, then it's something I can work with and that emotion will out in the finished piece. This post shows what the field looked like earlier in the year, when the flowers still had their yellow petal crowns in the sun.

August TIF done for now

Here is a pic of the August TIF in progress, showing the mohair being crocheted and couched down, before the chiffon scarf was machine stitched over top.


Here are pix of the project as far as I want to go with it at the moment. It needs something that I haven't discovered yet, so it's currently pinned to the studio wall awaiting that inspiration or instruction.

Although I started with the idea of balance, this piece looks more like a seascape with a sail showing in the distance and the feeling of a lighthouse represented by the long skinny triangle up the middle, and the shiny fabric layer which doesn't show up in the photos.

We had two lots of guests lately, so I've neither been posting as regularly as I like nor doing as much artwork. I think my life, rather than being balanced lately, has been more like a see-saw - feast or famine - loads of time to stitch or none at all - a pendulum swinging between extremes. Hmmm, some good images/ideas if I find time to revisit this theme.

August TIF started

I did the collage of fabrics the other day, using the sketch of a balance against a sky & sea background. I used this old silk t-shirt that had started to rip & disintegrate under the arms for the background blue.

Started to lay mohair lines horizontally across. Although at this stage, it doesn't look like much, I know where I'm going with it, and after a few more pix, you'll see the darks giving more life to it. I've also got one of those chiffon scarfs to lay over top, to unite everything, and some ideas of stitches to use on top to hold the chiffon scarf down...

Balance

The August Take It Further Challenge is balance. Easy peasy. This has always been a big idea for me - in art, in life - because I'm an October baby, a Libra, the balance.

I got out the watercolour crayons yesterday morning and doodled these designs, just filling up the paper, going up, down, sideways. The sketch that appeals is the one with the balance, in the bottom right hand corner, and that's what I'm going to do, with maybe the sign of Libra somewhere in it.

I'm going to use just the blues in the pallette because I don't like them in combination with the reds this month. Rather, I'm going to use some purple like in the sketch, which is what you get when you mix red and blue anyway. Off to search through stash for the colours now...