At this point, I think the stitching on Doorway Two is done. There may or may not be beads, not sure yet. But what I notice is that the artist is not always the best judge of which way is up.
So I took pix of all four aspects of the piece, and if you would be so kind as to look and study and think and let me know which way you think is the right orientation for this piece, that would be great. It will probably be appliqued to a bigger background, to work as a wallhanging.
One:
Two:
Three:
Four:
Thank you, art collaborators!
While I was looking for something else, I found a sleeve of netting, the kind you get fruit in, and cut parts to use here as a freeform trellis around the doorway.
Not sure what total shape the doorway will be this time, curved, pointed, square, that will emerge. Here's a general picture, then a tighter shot to show a bit better detail. The curving shapes at the top might end in a kind of point.
Meanwhile I stitched down the net at the junctions, pulling to make these more interesting shapes, then I'm couching a silver trail around and across it. In rl the background has a lot more light green in it than you see here. Disregard the trailing white thread, it's just the couching thread trailing from the needle. I think this piece will probably be appliqued to some close woven fabric, yet to be found.
It's starting to look as if I'm doing time of day. Doorway One is a night scene, Doorway Two looks like early morning, and perhaps Doorway Three, yet to be figured out, might be afternoon/evening.
I'm finding that the LED lamp is a very handy little
tasklight for brightening up the general ambiance around the piece for
taking pix. At this time of year when I can't take the camera outdoors, this is useful. My little point and shoot needs all the help it can get.
So after studying Doorway One on the wall for a while, and thinking I like those wonky beads, then I don't like those wbs, then I don't know about those wbs, I ended up realizing they were the wrong thing. So today I removed all the beads and replaced them with straighter lines of blue beads, and a nice copper ribbon ending with beads of some semi precious material whose name escapes me.
And I'm much happier with the whole thing. This piece is surprisingly heavy, what with all the brass chain and the two heavy beads. It feels good.
Last night at the embroiderers' stitch in I started on the next in the series, different color feeling, different sense of doorway.
This is another polaroid transfer image on nylon superimposed on a piece of knitted sparkly fabric I hand dyed in greens. So we'll see where this goes. The image looks big because it's in a very small hoop. But it's the same size as the Doorway One image up above.
I started with the usual snailtrail not much idea of where it's going yet, but that will unfold, I expect.
Current state of the unfinished doorway piece:
The pearls will be continued in a straight drop down, and the blue beads likewise. I'm looking at the irregular shapes and wondering, but won't know if they should stay like that until I do the drops.
At that point I think it will be done. I like the brass chain effect pretty much. But I welcome reaction and suggestion, too.
There will be a couple more doorway pieces, I think. This one's 12 inches high, 5.5 inches wide.
The beaded and woven and stitched piece continues, thanks to bitter cold and snow and being safer indoors.
At this point I can see how it will work.
Not framed after all, but once the rest of the beaded strings are done, it will come off the loom, hang on a dowel, and have some sort of beaded or tasseled features attached to all the bottom loops. Side loops will be stitched down at the back.
So, the Dollivers and Elton being a large part of the ongoing art work that is this life, they, along with Duncan the cat, took part in the Great Drawing this morning. Note the Tidepool piece in the background, to remind you what the award is.
I copied out the entrants' names and IDs onto a piece of paper, which I cut into slips, one slip per person, folded and crumpled them, put them in a dish, and invited Duncan to choose. As you see, he did.
The one he bit and tried to run away with was the winner, once I got it out of his mouth, a bit damp but still legible, note the toothmarks.
Elton agreed to hold it up for the camera. And it's, wait for it, it's...
Mary Ann!! of Magpie's Mumblings, beloved crazy quilting corner of the blogosphere. Send me your mailing address, MA, and I'll ship to you as soon as the PO opens after the holiday. Enjoy your Tidepool piece. And if you can send a pic of it with you once you receive it, that would be great. Especially if it also features your dragon..
And thank you everyone for taking part and signing up with such good humor, and inviting me to your corners, too. And to Vicki, for running this huge event again and inviting both my blogs to take part in it. My blog life has taken a great upward turn, and I now have a lot of new blogs to visit as well as people to welcome to mine.
Elton is playing us out with a selection of Ruffles and Flourishes, then There She Goes, Mi-hiss Canada, and Crazy. And he threw in Teddy Bears' Picnic because he's got the piano and his new sweater set, there's no holding him.
Here's the doorway piece, central motif stitched and beaded and cut out of surrounding fabric, then stitched down to protect the raw edge.
It's just set on top of the weaving for now, but will be secured there, and much more beading will happen around it, probably emphasizing the doorway motif. All this happens before I remove it from the loom. I'm thinking this might become the first of a series.
The Dollivers, the art dolls of my blogs, along with accompanist Elton, wish us all a Happy Val's Day tomorrow, and a reminder, that February 14th is also the last day to enter the Grow Your Blog Party giveaway.
To enter, if you haven't already, go here and make a comment. Remember to make sure I can get back in touch with you if you are the lucky recipient. I'll need to email you and get your mailing address from you. And I hope the winner enjoys her beaded and goldworked piece.
I'm back with my stitching, the doorway motif which was the polaroid transfer print, and with trapunto going on. Here you can see some couching and beading in progress, and the small purple weaving in the background might possibly go with this stitching.
Not sure yet, but I'll know more when I remove the stitching from the hoop and cut around it. The ragged edges of the transfer image won't be part of the finished work. I might be able to mount the stitched piece onto the weaving, then frame them together that way. The weaving will fit into an 8 x 8 box frame. Just a thought at this point.
I decided it didn't fit with the bigger work I originally had it in mind for, not right in spirit, so it will be a freestanding small work, possibly one of a series. The bigger work has suggested doorways, but the overall feeling of it is different.
You'll see my latest toy there, too, my LED portable worklight. It folds right down to the size of a fat wallet, easy to carry about and work in places where the light isn't quite good enough for stitching. It has three light levels, and I use it at the brightest setting. I'm an LED fan now!
And the dear little loom is another favorite tool, made in the US, yay, all metal, beautifully finished. Designed largely for potholders, but I use it for all kinds of artworks.
In the course of planning the paper jewelry workshop I'm teaching at the next general meeting of the EGA, the embroiderers, I thought it would be nice to find the bag of jewelry I made years ago and which was the reason I was asked to do the workshop. People saw them, liked them, wanted to learn.
And found it has completely vanished. This is a bag of about 30 necklaces and little bags of beads. Gone. An exhaustive search has not yielded anything. This was a blow, since it was the samples I was going to use for the workshop. Sooooooo, rather than waste even more time searching in the same places over and over, I figured I'd better make new ones.
This turns out to be a good idea, since I brushed up my skills, and I'll make a few new items to show and enjoy. Not such a deprivation, to be forced to play at jewelry making, after all.
Since my printer is being a bit miserly in how many good copies it will give at one time, I have to figure out if I can get a single good copy to xerox from, to show the bead template, a simple one once you've seen it. But I think I'll send out the workshop instructions as an email attachment. Art thrives on restrictions. At least I hope it will.
Here's the current state of the studio in mid workshop prep. where I'm making sample beads, assembling
papers to share, noting what to buy, what should go in the kits, who's
signed up already, who gets kits by mail. And on and on. You have to
do all this at once, really, since one thing suggests another, and you
might as well note it right away.
And here are the beads I made this morning. More to come.
