Week in Review 2019 – 03/29
Artist’s block is not something I normally deal with. In fact, I tend towards the opposite of artist’s block, having too many projects I am eager to launch into. Usually, I need to reign myself in and focus. Whether I have an abundance of ideas or no ideas, how I approach making art is similar. I clear the decks, start researching, start experimenting, and pretty soon it looks like a hurricane has come through the studio.
I finally settled on making a 12″ x 12″ image of multiple hydrangea blossoms. My concept is to layer petals using a variety of blue and blue/pink fabrics on a deep, shadowed green background. The easy way to do this is to simply cut a large number of fusible petals, lay them on the background, and iron everything in place. This method has never called to me. Instead, I want to create more depth and dimensionality by “building” my petals.
Left to right #1, #2, and #3
Four hours later I have made 3 petals each 1.5″ square. The first one took the longest as I tried to understand the origami diagram to do the final step of turning the corners under. What I don’t like about it is the fraying. I thought if I turned the edges under before folding the fraying would be hidden. NOT! It only got worse. See experiment #2. So, for experiment #3 I began by sewing two 3″ circles of fabric together around the perimeter, leaving an opening for turning. This worked best.
When I return to the studio next week, I will try one more thing, using two different, but compatible fabrics for a petal. My guess is I will intersperse petals created using experiment 3 and 4’s methods. I will be adding a single bead to the center of each petal when I tack them to the background.
I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.
