LIBATIONS IN THE AFTERLIFE (WAP #10; Egypt)

For us arty types, the flexibility of museums in the past 10 years in allowing visitors to take photos (without flash) has been a godsend!  At last we can snap away at everything that grabs us as being a resource for future inspiration.
The down side of this liberty is that when we encounter a museum that not only doesn't allow photographs to be taken, but doesn't have a decent postcard selection or even a beautiful book to purchase for reference, it is DEVASTATING! True wailing & gnashing of teeth scenario!!

Luxor Museum was like that.
Enter the trusty sketchbook.
Well, maybe not so trusty.
In the Luxor Museum we encountered some truly extraordinary artifacts from throughout Egypt's history. Being a 'no photograph' museum, I tried to sketch & make notes of some of the wonders I felt so privileged & overwhelmed to be seeing.  Looking at my sketchbook now, I recognise that I didn't write enough notes! For example, when quickly sketching the shapes of the perfume & libation bottles that formed part of the internal decoration of a wooden casket, I would like to know if they were coloured, where they were placed in relationship to other decorations, were they repeated at several points around the casket or in just one spot?

Even without the answers to these questions, I chose to use this page from my Egypt sketch book as an inspiration for this weeks art project.

First things first, I needed to sketch each of those bottles in a larger format so that I could get a sense of their lines & form.  Then, I would choose a few to fit into my A4  project size.

Before proceeding much further, I also made note of some of the other patterns found in the casket & wondered whether they might be good to include in some way.
Taking advantage of the hot day (ie; quick drying time) I got out some acryllic paints & white calico to roughly paint up some patterns. 

While my paintwork was drying, I started to work up a design.  In the process of measuring & ruling I found myself really enjoying the extra line marks.  It felt like a Mondrian- meet-Ancient-Egypt moment! I decided to keep some of those extra lines in my design & consequently give it a modern twist.

I also chose to only use scraps for my colour sections.
Like many textile artists I have a lot of scraps!  They sit in my colour bins which I occasionally rummage through, but don't get to use nearly enough.  I keep thinking I'll use them to create scrap quilts, but inevitably, I never get around to it!
So...it was time I started using them more consciously & NOW was that time!!

This decision did make the selection of fabrics & layering them up process a tad more time consuming, but it was certainly a valuable exercise.

I love this moment, before any cutting back begins.  The design is stitched in & the top fabric hides so many possibilities beneath it!

Unusually for me,l I chose to cut the negative space away first & absolutely LOVE the black shapes with the white lines against that patterned background.  It was tempting to stop right there & not cut back any further...

...but I did.
By cutting the first layer to create the outlines, it is interesting to see the rather modernistic way the layers appear before they are cut back further to their designated sections.

This is the final result.
I'm not sure why I chose to make gold crosses in each of them, I think I just got a bit gaga with the gold!  Looking at it now, I may go back & cut some of the gold out.
For me, much as I love the colours, this is a bit too visually loud for me. I actually prefer it in the black phase.
I wondered whether it might have looked better with less colour intensity in the background, so I took a black & white photo to see how the tonal values were balanced.

As you can see, they are actually balanced pretty well, which is a relief!!
Although I'm not as happy with my colour choices, I am happy with the design & enjoyed doing this weekly art project very much.
On a side note, there is a new book about Luxor Museum coming out this year & I am now on the waiting list to purchase one.  At last I will have a much better resource with which to remember our visit to this wonderful museum.  Yeehah!