One Thing Leads...

to another... at least if you're me.  Someone bought a journal cover from me on Etsy, but the size was wrong, so I suggested I made her one that would actually fit... and that's what I've been working on today.

As always, this is similar to the original, in process and look, but it is also quite different, so I hope she likes it.  This dotty, vaguely action painting style is typical of my paintings, but not so much my textiles, until recently.  

Spring Gardens, above, is one of the paintings I'm talking about, though this one is a much more controlled application of semi random dots.  I've recently been wondering about why I didn't bring painting and textiles closer together, and the journal covers have been the result.  Until today, when I took things a bit further... like I said, one thing leads to another.  

I liked the black/white/grey dots on the cover, so wanted to try that out in a piece for stitch...which led to this;

I like this one, it's got real potential, though perhaps not with this orientation.  So then, I wondered, what about changing the background... and got this; 

I rather like this one, too.  Originally, it just had a blue background, but I felt it needed something else, so added a flash of yellow, which I think makes it dramatic.  It has the feel of a monoprint, to some extent, really quite painterly.  The 'bird' in the foreground originally only had one 'wing', so I looked for a mark that seemed similar, and added it; I think it looks good....or at least, balanced.  I'm questioning whether I need to add stitch to this, it looks good on its own.

And finally... I had to trim a bit off from the original fabric, so grabbed an interesting looking background paper, and got this;

Four very different pieces, derived from the same basic approach, and the same base papers.  Isn't transfer dyeing a wonderful thing?  

ps thanks to everyone who was so encouraging in response to my last post, it's much appreciated.