Unexpected Choices...

...are always interesting, and usually the best.  I'm mid relapse, and whilst  lying in bed, was leafing through an art book... and had an idea.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a book about Sean Scully, and the idea was to do with this particular structure.  Yes, it needs to be ironed... sigh. 

The colours in this aren't all that accurate, but you get the drift...  Left to right, there's a section of rust dyed lutradur, one of tea and onion skin dyed cotton, and rust dyed muslin.  Two of the three are semi transparent, and that proved to be quite important. 

I'm not that keen on this, mostly, I suspect, because I hate white, and rarely use it in anything at all, textile or painting, other than to mix in with other paints.  I love colour...and apparently have a problem with the absence of colour.  The original idea I had, was to add some colour, a square, thereof, in the lower right section, which is quite different to the original idea, to stitch with the thread you see there, browns and blues, following the curves in the rust dyed sections, and across the white.  When I went into the studio to select the fabric, though, I spotted the box with the lace. 

I don't use lace, much, but I have some for hats.  Somehow, though, it seemed like a good idea to use something lacy on top of these semi transparent fabrics, following through on that idea.  When I opened the box, I spotted a doily.  Now, I don't like doilies.  I had a brief moment when I thought I'd use them in work, as is the fashion...but it has never really seemed like my kind of thing.  I really don't like this whole, take something, or better still, lots of things vintage and slap it/them onto a background and call it art, trend that has been hanging around for at least a decade, if not more.  Circles, though.... I liked the idea of circles.  So I fished around in the box some more.  And then I had a rest (as you do...well, as I do, these days). 

And this is what I'm going with.

   
Three doilies, all featuring lace and/or cutwork.  The one on the right is positioned on a circle of lutradur, to echo the lutradur element of  the base fabric.  And I've fished out some very pale threads to stitch them down with.  That, though, is for another day : I've overdone it.  But it has been worth it, I think... much better than sitting gazing at a computer screen. 

Getting It Wrong?

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I'm not fond of the word 'wrong'.  I don't think it's got much of a place in art.  However, in terms of the mechanical doing of a particular process, wrong is possible.  And did I ever get this one wrong. 

You may remember that I said I'd brought boxes in from the garage...well, in one of them, I found a small lino block (and this one is actually made of lino, not soft cut, so dates before ME).  I actually ditched most of my lino blocks, not sure how this one survived, to be honest.  I thought it might be fun to print it on one of the books.  So... first I needed a background, because I didn't want plain white.  I have a fair number of ink blocks, the kind used for stamping, and one of those was in the same box.  It happened to be green, and I wondered if it would work on Lutradur.  The answer to that was, yes, it could.  I simply dragged the ink surface across the fabric, and it worked fairly well.  Bit unfortunate that the ink pad fell off, bending itself in two as it did so, but actually, it left some interesting marks, so that was okay. 

And then it all started to go to hell in a handcart.  I decided to transfer dye the lutradur, using the block I'd found.  Firstly, I found a couple of places on the block that should have been carved away. Takes too much energy to remove them, so I sucked it up like a good little princess.  One or two of the prints I made looked okay, though, so I left them to dry.  So far so good.  Ish.

Later, I went to iron on the transfers.  And there's where things went pear shaped.  I made every single mistake in the book, all the things that I advise students not to do....yes, them.  I didn't check the iron temperature, because I always have the iron at its hottest setting, right?  Wrong.  So when I transferred, I got something that looked like a ghost print, and managed to drop the paper when I checked it, so couldn't realign the print, and ended up with a smudged, double image.  I used one of the prints I wasn't happy with, the one with lots of odd bits and pieces that shouldn't be there, and no, I have no idea how they got there, either...but they're on the book now.  And then another double image.  Things were starting to get out of hand.  The back didn't go as planned, either, and I have no idea why. 

And yet... here's the book, ready for stitch.  (I know... at last, a book that's going to include stitch as a major design feature... finally...).  And I Rather Like It.

The front has a good balance to it.  Yes, there are flaws; click on the image, have a closer look, you'll see them.  What's important, though, is that they don't dominate the piece.  They don't scream, look at me, I'm a mistake...ha ha ha.  Adding stitch will take what little attention they get, away, I think.  I rather like the double images; think I might try that again, deliberately, see what I get... some other time.

The back is more densely coloured than I wanted, but that's not the end of the world.  Boring, you say?  Meh.  Not as boring as all that, reasonable variety of both tone and mark.  What will bring it alive, though, will be the free motion machine stitch, following the shape of the flowers.  And that's what this background was designed to contain, to support.  It's not that great on its own, but once the stitch is added, it will be the perfect counterpoint to the front.  And this is an excellent example of how I think fabric books need to be conceived, designed and worked. 

I couldn't work out why I'm not keen on fabric books as a genre.  As a book lover, it ought to be a no brainer...and yet... I think it's because the examples I've seen, seem to be random collections of stuff, sometimes with a theme, sometimes without, contained in a cover.  Imagine a story book created on that basis: I find it very difficult to do.  The story is the thing, in my books, the concept.  There always is one; it's just a question of finding and expressing it.

Chugging Along Nicely...

...with Borderlines... though the cat is attempting to intervene...Mollie is nothing if not consistent.  She's been sitting on there for the past ten minutes...just as well I'd taken all the photos I wanted before she sat down. 

I've now completed the stitch in the bottom section, and am therefore feeling somewhat smug.  I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the upper section, but given that Mollie's now lying all over it, that's a problem for another day. 

I've used two different, but similar, variegated hand dyed threads, one below the paper motifs, and one to the side.  The one below is dark, and the stitching curls in on itself, echoing the way in which the right hand side of the paper motifs has been stitched.  

Spot the gap.  The stitch on the top reflects the torn and uneven nature of the motif; the stitch on the bottom...doesn't.  In fields, a gap like that might be filled with trees; in abstract, I've filled them with vertical stitch, which in my mind, suggests those trees.

To the right of the motifs, I've stitched diagonally, given that there were several lines of vertical stitches there already, and I didn't want to repeat that.  The diagonal reflects the circular motif above it.  I didn't want too big a block of stitch in that area, so used the motif as a natural stopping point, as well as a directional guide.

And now, Mollie is up on the arm of the sofa, expecting me to move the laptop so she can snuggle into my lap; turns out I'm more comfortable than the quilt.  I will have to make my mind up about the upper section...but maybe not today.  Or at least, not consciously.  Doubtless there will be a certain level of unconscious problem solving going on in there while I get on with Other Things.