NEXT PROJECT

This project was meant for submission to a celebratory exhibition and obviously never happened.  I did submit a piece of work but it was a quilt I had produced in the year during a workshop with Rosalie Dace.

The original intention was to produce three thread painted flowers and to mount them on three artist canvases (ready bought), however, I have committed myself to producing two A3 sized quilts for an American auction next year so these may take this format.

I have gathered the thread together (and bought some more) and I think I have enough to go forward with.  The top copy is a paper print out of the flower and the ones behind are the photo transferred onto cotton. 

The idea is to stitch the flowers, cut out, fuse to a background, and progress.  Hopefully this coming week will see some action!

VISITOR TO THE GARDEN .........

I was walking around the garden early yesterday evening and realised I was not alone ......

..... I think I am correct in calling it a green spotted bush snake - harmless.  It had definitely had a meal as you will notice some irregular shapes in its body , left and right of its head.  Frogs ?  Hopefully not a couple of small birds!  It was not too happy as I came closer to get the pic and swayed its head from left to right.

Happy Birthday Mum

Yesterday was Mum's birthday and along with tradition out came the Christmas decorations.......

They were dusted down, fluffed out and after a thorough clean of the house the tree was decorated and the angels and (dare I say!) artificial poinsettias were put out on display.

After dark the lights were switched on and the prezzies put under the tree.

Happy Festive Season!

In the beginning ........

This time of year from about 11, when the sun is shining, it is far too hot to be outside and this is when I distract myself from general household chores to far more interesting projects.

This has been interesting as I started the arduous task of removing the frog from the backing cloth.......

......... he is missing a limb to the right of the quick-un-pick. After one and a half hours my fingers were quite bruised trying to pick out the little threads.  I had a quiet giggle while unpicking away as I have a fellow quilter who calls these type of projects "FROGS"  ....... because you can hear them calling as you work on them ..... "ribbick!"

Plan B :  The frog is a photo transfer on cotton, appliqued onto the duck canvas, and then stitched.  Finally he was appliqued onto the base cloth and stitched again in various places to secure and or to add more stitching.  Hence I am going to go in from the front with a very sharp blade and try and slice thru the stitching enough to loosen and remove without hopefully going the whole way thru.

ADMISSION OF DEFEAT!

Well that did not go very well at all.   Against all odds I have failed to complete 2013's challenge.

However, the task will be completed no matter what, however, 2014 will not consist of a challenge, instead I will be concentrating on completing those PHD's (for those who do not know - projects half done ) which will include those that were not even started but  placed in a pile in a corner on my work table .

I have changed the look of my blog and will change the heading when 'Blogger' is working okay again and will let me!  (having issues at the moment - not even sure this will happen).

2014 will give you a better insite into what I do and what stops me from completing my various projects.

My first project will be to revisit the piece I started in the workshop with Kathryn Harmer-Fox, earlier this year, a very talented artist/fibre artist. It does not help if you attend a workshop with mixed/confused expectations.  One of Kathryn's techniques is embedding small scraps of fabric into the work to create a piece.

The end result is I have come away with a greater understanding of her work and a piece of work that I am not too happy with.

This is the piece ..........


Combining my technique has meant that my thread painted frog is not blending or sitting in amongst the 'grasses' correctly.  The background is duck canvas (I think) and the 'grass' is a sheet of silk waste that I have stretched and opened out and then stitched in place.  The frog was photo transferred onto cotton and then appliqued onto the canvas, thread painted, cut out and then stitched onto the background. 

My first step is to 'remove' the frog which could take a while but can happen.  

Step two will be to introduce some 2D leaves in some way and then thirdly to introduce the thread painted  frogs, probably scaled down, but stitched so that they are embedded in the piece.

I have a number of pics of my tree frog to play around with .......                                            

                         

 

I do like my threes so I will probably use the original and the two on the right as I can see them up against or holding onto something.

Let's get started.

UP AND RUNNING AGAIN

Always practice what you preach ...... always keep your blog fresh and updated !  Failure !!!

Life sometimes throws curved balls at you and no matter what there are not enough hours in the day to complete everything.  I have been constructively creative in the past four months but not along these lines. In fact I have enjoyed the past 4 months greatly , but,  back to business here.

I visited the National Geographic Photographic Exhibition at Ushaka Marine this past week which was amazing plus a month back there was a small photographic exhibition on at KZN  Gallery on horses which also helped spurred me back into action.

Both the pictures below are situated along the Esplanade in Durban and could be possible candidates.

Time to get out the paint, paper and tools and start creating.  Yeah!



Dick King Monument

Vasco da Gama Monument

 

CHANGE IN SUBJECT MATTER

After much thought and deliberation I have realized that my challenge of 'buildings' is not going to work.  There are not many buildings (around my home town) that do not have much going on in front of them ....... trees, people, cars, traffic lights to name a few. Added is the frustration of not being able to get a good enough picture because of space restraints, angles etc.

 

  

                                       

 

These two pics are perfect examples of focal subject matters that I can create into a 2D format.

 

 

A good sign post !

 

 

.......a good statue ......

 

 so back to my pictures and trips around town to hunt out more subject matter.

 

 

 

      
 

FINAL EFFECT

I have done a few more 'things' to the piece and I think this is it for this one. 

I have used a very fine black pen and worked some of the lines around the 'painted' areas and then I used white paint to put a wash over the sign post to knock back the colour.   I also added the small stand alone post on the left ...... one error ...... I removed the chain.  I now have a shadow of an invisible chain.  I need to remember this.

FIRST ATTEMPT

Believe it or not I have managed to squeeze in some time to 'play' around with my challenge and I think I am on the right track.  Here's what I did ......

I chose this picture taken at the Hout Bay waterfront in Cape Town as it is a perfect example of a photograph with a very definite foreground.  I then converted it to a black & white picture ......

and then printed it onto some fairly thick lutradur, thru my inkjet printer.....

 



I really love this effect.  This is all thanks to one of the other blogs I participate in where the info was shared.  I then painted, very pale, the wooden balustrade and stairs in brown and the section below the balustrade and the pillar, front left with the 'teal'.

 

 

Stuck the original picture on board and cut out the sign post, mounted 3D sticky pieces at the back and stuck it onto the painted lutradur.

 

 

I have just trimmed back the lutradur and laid it on the biscuit coloured paper and then on some black paper.

 

 

There is more contrast than I would like.  I have not stitched and am not sure whether I would want to on this one.  An option would be to draw in black lines around the painted areas, however, the lutradur is too coarse so maybe the next trial should be on thinner lutradur. 

 

I need to now get out there and take some good pictures.





BIGGER CHALLENGE THAN I THOUGHT

I have finally got all my 'stuff' out ......

 

 

.............and looking at possible pictures I have realised this is the most crucial, and I mean crucial, part of the exercise.  The pictures will have to be spot on to work, no obstructions such as trees, traffic lights or any other object that is in the foreground. 

 

 

 

 

In this picture I would have wanted just the middle section of the building for the photograph portion to create the 2D effect, but the side pieces of the building are in the foreground plus I have people, potted plants and a section of a fountain in the way.   This one is probably too complicated for me to 'fix' on photoshop but certainly I will have to learn the art of in some of the pics as it is very difficult to avoid any obstructions.

 

 

 

Although this one is not perfect there is minimal 'obstruction' to the main feature, the cable car ,so I will experiment (do not like this word but I have no option here!) with this picture and see how I cope.

 

 

I have realised that what  pictures of local buildings I have are totally wrong and so I need to get out there and start snapping again.