SHEEP (WAP #20; Istanbul)

One of the frustrating aspects of travel is the need to queue to get in to see extraordinary places!  However, whilst it is a nuisance, it can also be an unexpected pleasure, as it allows us to stop & really take in what is around us.

When we were queuing to get in to Hagia Sofia, I was able to stop & enjoy the range of relics 'planted' in the nearby grass, in particular this marble frieze decorated with sheep. Coming from New Zealand, I find myself naturally drawn to sheep, even though my father was a dairy farmer! Never before had I seen sheep in such close proximity to a date palm though & given the size of the palm...these must have been super sized sheep!

The Hagia Sofia we were visiting, was in fact the third version of this sacred building.  The first & second were both destroyed by fire & the relics in the gardens are what remains.

Paying close attention to my photograph, I started to study this fabulous sheep.  I also had my book to hand & it was here that I learnt that the sheep frieze is from the second Hagia Sofia. Back in the days when chariot racing was the sport of champions, there were two competing teams; the Blues ( supported by the aristocrats) & the Greens (supported by everyone else!). One day in 532AD there was an almighty riot between the two of them & fire broke out, resulting in the destruction of the Hagia Sofia.

As this was really interesting information, I made a few written notes before I began my visual note taking.  Perhaps there was some way I'd be able to reference that history in my design process.

I was enamoured with the way the sheep's wool was carved.  In my experience, wool is usually represented by curls, not angles.  This led me to wonder whether the breed of sheep might have been more inclined towards hair rather than wool.  All fun to speculate upon & equally fun to try & work out how to show this in contemporary reverse applique !

When it came to completing the design I made the decision to focus solely on the sheep.

Choosing fabric options for the sheep took no time at all.  But for the background.....ARGHHHHHHHH!
I wanted some sort of decoration in the background & I had thought that this could be where I referenced the Blues & Greens. After many rejections, I finally chose a discontinued curtain sample even though it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

The sample was a bold design on a navy blue background, with turquoise embroidery here & there.  I was attracted to the pale design on the blue & the random placement of design features.  I didn't want the turquoise embroidery, so I unpicked it before ironing & layering up my fabrics.

For this design I was trying something different in terms of outlines.  Instead of a line encircling the animal shape, I was choosing the lightest areas of the frieze as my anchoring points.  This is how the sewing lines looked.

After careful stitching, it was time to cut back!

At last it was cut back sufficiently to reveal a textured little sheep!  It just needed some embellishment to complete it.

With a beaded eye, a nostril & mouth, this sheep now had character.  In the background, I added some green embroidery to the foliage parts of the design, thus achieving a reference to those warring charioteers.

I am very pleased with my little sheep, even if it gets a little bit lost with that bold background.
As you can imagine, I couldn't resist giving it the 'app' treatment & the outcomes are REALLY interesting.

Take a look at these!

What fun it has been to  focus on the Hagia Sofia this month.  Next week we progress on the calender to September & I'll look elsewhere in Istanbul for my inspiration.

By the way....thank you, to those who fed back to me an overwhelming preference for dark script on a white background for this blog.  I am so sorry that many of you have had to suffer with the black background for so long! Enjoy the white from now on!!

ANGEL (WAP #19; Istanbul)

 This week I approached my art project with anticipation.

I knew what I wanted to use as my inspiration & I also had an idea of what I wanted to try doing & how.

One of the most beautiful features of Hagia Sophia, in my opinion, is the Angel. High up on one of the walls, huge wings taper down towards the earth.  Magnificent as they are, it is the face surrounded by a golden halo that consistently takes my breathe away.  It was therefore this section of the stunning mosaic that I wanted to focus on.

 I began by cropping a photo to a pleasing composition & then printing it out to A4 size.  Given that our trip to Istanbul was in 2011 & about 4 cameras ago, the photo quality of these snaps are not particularly good!  Therefore the image came out  blurry & rather ephemeral.

I liked it!  My initial thought of drawing the face was supplanted by the possibility of transferring it from photo to fabric in someway.  I'd give more thought to that once I had made headway with the background.

 My plan was to create a patterned halo in golds, using some of those decorating Hagia Sofia as my design source.

This meant it was time for visual note taking!
My workroom is an extension of my home.  As I'd just put a load a laundry in the machine, I decided to only allow myself as much time to 'note take' as it took to do a  laundry cycle! So for 45 minutes I scanned my photos & book, closely inspecting the patterns & jotting them down with my copic pens.  These would direct my design making.

 After creating a design in pencil, standing back from it, tweeking it a bit & then applying black marker, I finally had  a clear idea of how my background was going to be achieved.
It was therefore, time to rummage through the fabrics.

Although it seems to be only a small selection, I was going to use some of these in more than one 'sandwich' of layers, so in parts there would actually be 7 layers of fabric on top of the backing, not 4!  This was going to take some serious concentration!
The phone was turned to silent!

Before proceeding, I had to also make a decision about my Angel's face.  How was I going to apply it?

I chose to use iron on transfer paper.  This is not a tool that I have had a lot of practice with, but one of the things I DO remember, is that the image comes out inverted.  Therefore I needed to take that into consideration.

So I flipped my background design over & stuck it down to the lightbox and voila...the whole design was inverted & could be copied from the back !  Just as well I use a black marker that tends to show through the paper!!

 The fabric was cut, the ironing was done & it was time for the layering up of the base to begin.  The first lot of machine sewn design went ahead without a hitch, before I layered up the next lot of fabrics for the next section of the design.

There were 3 separate sewing sessions completed before I could finally cut back.

Because I wanted to make space for my Angel head, I chose to cut back the top layer of the base section first.  So far so good.
I decided to transfer the face image onto this next layer of fabric, before cutting it back, partly because I was concerned about space & I was curious about whether it would work.

So that's what I did.

 

 The results were not ideal.
However, I wasn't disappointed.
Experimenting is how we learn & it is in this process that we make unexpected discoveries.

The transfer paper had not been a full A4 size! (Grrrr) Therefore, when it was printed, I needed to make a decision about whether I wanted the head to fit neatly into the hollow (ideal) OR whether I wanted the bottom line to align with the base of the design.  I chose alignment, which did mean that part of her face would overlap with the lacy patterning.

Another thing I learnt, was that the colour of the fabric one is applying the transfer to, impacts on the colour tones of the image.  If I'd transferred the face onto the lighter colour fabric that became the outline, the face wouldn't have come out so dark.  If I'd transferred it onto a completely separate piece of fabric and then appliqued it in place once all the cutting back of the background was completed,   I could have manipulated the positioning  &  more effectively covered up the overlapping lacework.

However...wisdom comes in hindsight!  This is the value of doing samples, to find the potential glitches & then problem solve.

To be honest, I actually liked the darker image & although not ideal for this piece, I did like the effect of applying a transfer over a cutback design.  In fact, I kind of wished I'd created a complete cutback pattern for the interior of the halo, as it could have been quite an interesting outcome for the complete face to be on pattern.

Something to try another time, when I have purchased more transfer paper!!!

For now, there was more cutting back to do.

 Once the cutting back was complete, I had a problem to solve.  How was I going to make that gap of background fabric where the head SHOULD have fitted nicely, less obvious!

I thought about the source & then I thought about my resources!

The original is a mosaic.
The transfer had been cut out from the (almost)A4 sized detail, which meant, there was still a whole halo of transfer paper left.
What if I cut it into tesserae & ironed it onto the background?
There was nothing to lose by trying, so that's what I did.

This is the final result & I am very pleased with it.
I must acknowledge that it is a complete fluke that the tesserae came out so dark & consequently balanced the darker tones in the ring.
All in all a fun & exciting experiment, even if not entirely what I had originally envisaged.
Goodness knows what I'll get up to next week!  See you then.

FLYING FISH (WAP #18; Istanbul)

When I approached my Art Project this week, I did so with a less than joyful attitude! Let's just say Mrs Grumpy was the persona in residence at that time!  It was a later than anticipated start, so I was already on 'the back foot' time-wise. Would it have been better to cancel the plan & start afresh another day?
No. I don't think so.  From experience, I know that once I get going on a project my mood usually changes.  Besides that, another day is just as likely to feel time-short as this day! There was only one thing to do...get on with it!

The interior of the Hagia Sophia of Istanbul is aglow with the colour gold.  It is also decorated with a plethora of pattern!
Instead of using my time to carefully reintroduce myself to each pattern I'd photographed,  I instantly settled on one I'd tried to sketch whilst there.

I think of this as the 'Flying Fish' pattern, because that is  how my brain interprets what I see!

Because it is a repeat/mirror image pattern, I used my handy view finder tool (ie; 2 strips of card!!) to highlight a single corner of the pattern.

Knowing that I wanted my finished sample to be A4 size, I could have just got a piece of printer paper & folded it into quarters.  Instead, I measured a quarter & drew it as a template on to some thicker cartridge paper.  This is because I wasn't going to use the time to do my small sketchy drawings, but was going to draw & erase & redraw...possibly multiple times...directly onto the template. I wanted a stronger paper to cope with all that working.

You'd think that it would be easy to basically copy a design, but this was more than copying. I needed to adjust it from a square format to a rectangle & also needed to think about what was possible or not, with contemporary reverse applique.  In the process, I was taking a very close look at the design...I was reading it!

Eventually I settled on something I was happy with & went for a shuffle through my fabrics.  Remarkably, this was the quickest part of the whole process, which is unusual for me!! ;-)

There were two layers of stitching, not that you could tell from the top!

It was more apparent from the bottom!!  Oh dear...the other thing that was more apparent was that some of my lines weren't straight! Time to engage the mantra "this is just an exercise''!
Nevertheless, it was a value trick to remember...look at the underside before proceeding!!!

It was time for the cutting back to begin.

This was after the first layer was cut back & I felt that I was off to a very good start.

Instead of doing just the second layer, I chose to cut multiple layers at once to speed progress up a little.  This is a dangerous choice.  Not only does it require another level of concentration (ie; MORE!), but it is also VERY easy to cut more than what one intends!!!

Nevertheless, I was happy with the outcome.
It just needed some tweeking to give it more oomph, & I felt sure that embroidery would be the appropriate embellishment.

This is the end result & I am very happy with it, even if I was caught a bit short with the patterned fabric!
I'm glad that I  stuck with the discipline of doing my WAP today, but I'm also glad I listened to my inner self & altered my usual working pattern to take the time restraints into consideration. All in all, a good day in the workroom...and a MUCH better mood by the end of it! Phew!

RED FLOWER in AUSTRALIA WIDE 6

After being overseas for 2 months, it was very nice to come home to some good news. WOOHOO...my art piece, 'Red Flower', had been selected for the Ozquilt exhibition; 'Australia Wide 6'!  

Oh boy...happy dance time!

Each measuring 40cm x 40cm, the selected 37 quilts will spend the next 2 years traveling around various exhibition sites.  The Premier exhibition is at the 76 Queen Street Galleries in Concord West, Sydney (Australia), with the opening being on 31 August 2018.

So....what is this...'Red Flower'?

This piece is the result of working through & developing further, a weekly art project from 2017.

Inspired by the plethora of resource material in my garden, I had committed to the Weekly Art Project  initiated by textile artist Brenda Gael Smith. On this particular week, I chose a flowering succulent as my muse.  The red looked so dynamic against the backdrop of my patio chair cushions & with those twisting fleshy leaves, there was plenty for me to play with in terms of design & technique.

As usual, I started with pen & paper, where I absorbed myself in visual note taking, all the time thinking about how I might compose a potential art piece.

Further explorations with paint finally led me to something I wanted to try out in fabric & stitch.

This simple little piece was the end result.
I loved it.
However, I struggled with the fact that there really wasn't much contemporary reverse applique going on here.  If I were to make it bigger, how could I incorporate more of the technique that is my specialty?

That is what working & reworking ideas is all about!
Eventually, with a few design tweeks & a few more layers of fabric, I had a result that I was pleased with.  This is a detail of what you see at the beginning of this post, and in it you can see how I've cut back layers to make those lovely little floret shapes.

If the AUSTRALIA WIDE 6 comes to a gallery near you, do pop in & see the fabulous range of pieces that have been selected for this exhibition.  You can have a sneak peek at www.ozquiltnetwork.org.au where they are posting a daily preview of each of the artists. 
I feel very honoured to be included! :-D

INTENDED & INSCRIBED (WAP; Istanbul #17)

 Having returned from two months exploring Iceland & Norway, I have now recovered from jetlag & am trying to get back into the rhythm of my life!
Naturally, that means regaining a disciplined art practice, of which a weekly art project is an important part.
What to do though!  Do I forget all about the rest of the places I visited in Istanbul & start afresh with exploring my more recent travel adventures in the Nordic realm?? Or do I complete my series inspired by beautiful Istanbul?
SUCH a hard decision to make...but, back to Istanbul I go!

For the month of August, I want to specifically focus on the wonderful Hagia Sofia. Absolutely reeking of history, with every step revealing some form of creative beauty... the month of August might not be enough!!

I have started with two rather different inspirations.  These carved pillars have the most beautiful leaf pattern and the stone contrasts with the brightly coloured & decorated walls .  A lot of my own work has been inspired by architectural decorations like this, so it seemed a good place to start.

 The other  source of inspiration is from markings inscribed in marble.  These were not intended by the builders & decorators of this great place.  These are graffiti marks...runes left by a visiting Viking back in the 9th century.  As I've just returned from the land of the Vikings, it seemed appropriate to include it in my first post-holiday piece!

 Visual note taking involves the question, "what am I seeing?", and in answer I use pen & graphite crayon to express my answers.  As I draw & shade in tones, I begin to get an idea of how I might use these marks to create my own design.

 I decide to use the 'mirror image' technique, with a border inspired by runes. Gradually it comes together on paper and then it is time to rummage through the fabrics.

 My fabric choices are dramatically influenced by the coloured pens & crayon that I'd been using to draw with.  I liked the combination of warm neutrals with the cool greys & it didn't take me long to find some worthy fabric candidates.  The gold swirl fabric was an unusual choice, but I was desperate to get rid of it.  It  has a large stain over the bulk of the fabric from when the cat decided to pee on it!  (This is why I generally don't allow our cat into my work space! ) There was just the right amount of non- stained fabric for this project & then I can toss the rest away without feeling guilty!!! 

 The golden brown fabric was to be my top outline layer, but because it has a sheen on the surface of the cotton, it wouldn't take my air erasable pen.  After three attempts with three different pens, I gave up & resorted to sewing from the backing.

 Once the stitching was complete, I flipped it over and began to cut away to reveal the outlines.

 The second cut back varied a little. For the upper portion of the design, I cut back 2 layers of fabric at the same time. This gave me another outline ( the background), from which I could cut into layer #2 and know where I was going. The requirements for the bottom section were different, so it was cut back just one layer at a time!

This is how it looked when three layers had been cut back.

And...the end result.
This piece has taken a LOT of intricate cutting and I have to aknowledge that the whole process has taken me more than a single day to complete.  Clearly, I'm a bit out of cutting practise!!!!!!  Nevertheless, I am very pleased with it & I particularly like the randomness of the runic patterns at the bottom.

I haven't used my 'layout' phone app for a while, so I couldn't help wondering how this design would look if it was manipulated & repeated.

WOW!  I like that!! What a great way to get back into the art of cutting back!