Living This Creative Life

I have two favorite quotes. The first one is by Emile Zola, "If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I would tell you that I came to live out loud". I don't know who the second one is by, but it goes like this, "If you're not living on the edge then you might as well jump". Both of these sentiments sum up my personal philosophy of this experience we call life on earth. Enjoy!

Sunday, July 21, 2013


Art Almost Every Day, Sunday, July 21, 2013
 
Good Afternoon,
First an apology, I was so busy rearranging my dye studio yesterday that I entirely spaced out doing my daily piece.  If I don't make it first thing in the morning I sometimes forget all about it in the evening and that's what happened yesterday.
So, here is today's piece.  It was started a few days ago for a video I was shooting, but I completed it this morning.  It features a dye painted piece of fabric in the center with dye painted strips laid down on top of it for borders. Both are sitting on a violet dye painted batting.  Then I cut out a dye painted flower and set it on top of some more violet batting and cut out the batting so that about 1/4" shows.  I quilted the flower down along the edge then couched down a hand dyed Boucle fiber.  Then I stippled the background and added three rows of couched fibers in the border.
I like it o.k., but clearly my heart wasn't into the color color/fabric choices.  There isn't enough contrast between the flower and the background fabric.  I thought outlining it with the violet batting would make it o.k. but it's not enough.  I do like the curvy couched border though and I think it frames the flower well.
Till tomorrow,
Heather



P.S. Thanks for the comment Mary Beth

1 comment:

me said...

I saw this at your studio today and for some reason, I don't think it looks as busy in the middle section as it seems to here in the photo. In person, I thought the flower stood out a little better- it held its own well from where I was sitting.

Closer up here though, it does compete with the background. I think that is just because the petals of the flowers are repeated in the fabric behind it and my eye is pulling that layer flat with the flower, even though it isn't.

From a little further back, the flower seems to float nicely on the foreground with that violet border around it, and the background fabric looks like shimmery water.

The couched fibers add so much texture and movement to this, as well as some nice light and glimmer. That border section is such a nice frame for this piece, it suits the sparkling aqua feel.

I think that the violet batting frame really makes the batting around the flower pop out. I love how repeating something can really make it dance every place you see it!