A close view of the beautiful detail found on this gorgeous silver mirror.
Tag: home decoration
I’ve been busy busy trying to get some of the projects I’m working on finished.
I’ve been working busily on my hollyhock quilt and now it’s finished. I’m a bit disappointed that it’s over, it was a really enjoyable project. I need to catch up on a few things and then officially start on my next commissioned quilt. I say “officially”, when in reality, I’ve been bouncing ideas around in my mind , long before today. I’ve done a few preliminary sketches, playing around with possibilities. I can already tell that I am going to find this an interesting project.
This red hollyhock art quilt was a commission. Commissions present an interesting challenge, I think it’s a beneficial to take a step back, and work on a theme that may not be your usual approach or subject matter. It might be stepping out of what has become your comfort zone. For a commission to work, you need to translate it into your own interpretation of the subject. This was an easy quilt to capture my interest and spark my own enthusiasm. It is a theme I enjoy working with. I love doing stylized flowers, and hollyhocks? Well goodness yes! That was a bit of a coincidence. My client loves hollyhocks, she even has their images on her business cards. When she received her quilt, I enclosed in the paperwork one of my older business cards, it also contained a wonderful image of hollyhocks . When this fact had first occurred to me, I had to laugh, we were a good fit, my client and her artist.
I’ve posted some pictures of the progress along the way. Now it’s finished, here’s the finished red hollyhock quilt. It has it’s title now, “A Bug’s Eye View”. As I worked on the finishing touches, my husband stood there looking at the nearly finished quilt. He decided it needed a little bug in it. Humm…
It is a floral art quilt, I added a slightly contemporary spin, a little non traditional approach to a floral theme. I chose to give the flowers and stalks a disproportional profile. As my husband observed, this is how the large would appear, seen through the eyes of a tiny bug, dwarfed by it’s hugeness. I thought it might work, a cute little ladybug, that you would barely notice. But first, I needed to run the idea by Karen, the lovely lady who had commissioned the piece, how would she feel about this? She liked the idea and so my little ladybug became a part of this quilt. And that is how the red hollyhock art quilt came by it’s title “A Bug’s Eye View”.
You’ve seen the progression, here is the finished version. You may notice that the ladybug is missing, she truly was a last minute addition. I had already taken the final photos.
But after she was added into the picture, as I stared at the quilt, evaluating it, I realized that she was indispensable. She needed to be right where she is, looking up at the great big world from the ground, viewing a group of red hollyhocks.
I added texture to the leaves, they are not just visually dimensional, but have actual texture and dimension.
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What happened to the time lapse?
I haven’t posted any updates on my time-lapse/Hollyhock art quilt lately. The concept of a “time lapse” art quilt, was following progress at regular intervals. It’s been a busy month and I haven’t spent much time working on it.
Recently, after a week of daily proclamations made on my blog, that I was going to finish this quilt that very day! Yet with my continued dillying dallying,I embarrassed myself enough to get working on it in earnest.
All my self pressuring has paid off! I can announce with relief, I have finally finished it.
An unrelated but hopefully amusing side point,
A small unrelated side point, I reread this post for editing and noticed that I’ve developed a sloppy writing habit. My use of exclamation marks, is on the excessive side. I’m easily excited and it’s hard to express excitement without exclamation marks, it’s addictive. It is similar to the over use of air quotation marks, made with your fingers while saying, something like, “She “thinks” she’s so smart”. Another bad habit, less common, is winking constantly. In the past, I had a problem with this.
My favorite aunt was a winker. She used it with enough restraint that it was fun, as if she was sharing a private joke with you. To an awkward 12 year old,my fun, outgoing aunt made me feel special I wanted to be fun and outgoing just like her, when I grew up.
Years later out of the blue I winked at some one, just as my aunt might have done.I began to wink more,but as I found,it can get out of control. I started winking so much that it became involuntary.It popped up at the most inappropriate times. No one wants a wink after the death of a loved one,[“How are you doing?- wink” or “You have my condolences-wink”. The receiver of the wink must have questioned my sanity or wondered if I had an eye tick.! That said, I’ll try to restrain my explanation marks, just as I have promised to be briefer, sure I will..[wink wink].
My excitement is overflowing!! Having this off my mental “to do list”,which plagues me until I finish whatever I start is great.I love this quilt, it’s the pressure caused by the pressure to complete it that I didn’t enjoy.
Winking and exclamation points aside, here is my finished fiber art quilt.
“ Holly hocks? Must Be Summer“.
I painted this silk fabric a a month or so ago . I liked it, but how to turn this fabric into an art quilt? As usual, I needed to run things around in my head for a while. What techniques to use? To applique or not applique? What style quilting to use? Lots of choices available, which ones to use.
I have found that using applique, a lot of thread painting, or dense quilting, tends to obscure the fabric design. Which in this case, I wanted to highlight.
I finally worked out the plan of action. Keep the focus on the painting itself, no fussiness to detract or obscure. I have found that the more I add to the fabric; applique, thread painting, dense quilting, the less the background is noticeable. It covers the design on the fabric. Since I’m dye/paint my own fabric, I often have this debate with myself going on.
What I liked about this fabric was it’s impressionist style, the way it resembled a watercolor.
.New piece of silk painted and ready for next step
I kept thread painting to a minimum, a little to add grass that faded off into the background, creating the “meadow”. With the quilting, although needed , keep wanted to keep it unobtrusive.
I finished it and posted on Etsy.
A nice thing happened. A rep for Pebeo Company, Setacolor contacted me. They need an art quilt which utilizes Setapaints for display at the Quiltcon show. They will have a booth and want a quilt to illustrate how Setapaints can be used in Art Quilting. This is the quilt that they want.
We’re still working out the details, but it is a done deal.. I am so excited that they asked me and it is such a good product that I genuinely love. The consistency is perfect for what I do, it is a permanent dye like paint, it can be diluted or thickened to suit the need. The selection of colors are great.
I generally paint my silk with a diluted form. I use Setapaint to create my silk “paintings”. For this quilt, I used watered down Setapaint, in a wet on wet technique, to create the impressionistic style.
I love how versatile they are..No they didn’t solicit any comments on my part, I am speaking from genuine appreciation for the product. So I’m jived!
SOLD
Barbara Harms Fiber Art & More 