B is for Book - beads and completed!

I mentioned the other day that the blue brocade was pulling away from the braid which was meant to hold it down. So, I have added beads in a patterning called diaper pattern when in the centre parts of illuminated letters.

And so here is B is for Book completed!

I think the beads really make a design difference as well. Scroll down to yesterday's post to see what it looked like before.

I am still thinking about the designs at the top and bottom. I may add some beads there as well just to pull it all together.

B is for Book - adjustments

This is the point I got to on the B illuminated letter.

I had left space at top and bottom when laying it out because you don't always know how wide the binding might be or how the stitching might change things when you are looking at it laying on the table. So, when I hung it up, I realised it really needed something. So I did some free hand designs with the soldering iron and the gold gel pen.

Not perhaps just what would work best had I planned it. Which shows what happens when you are rushing for a deadline. To be honest, I didn't have to have it completely finished by the 1st of July, just give details. But I didn't want it hanging over me any longer!

B is for Book - nearly finished

Here is a detail of the B is for Book piece for Stretching Art.

I have the bindings sewn on with the machine, but will hand stitch it to the back on Saturday at the Offcuts sewing group.

PS the pins in the letter are holding it together a bit for now. It is stitched through on the braid, but it is too heavy and is pulling. SO, I think I may put some beads in the centre of the grid/diaper pattern spaces, which is often what was done with diaper pattern for illuminated letters.

B is for Book - Pen flourishes

Great progress today. Here is a glimpse of the free machine work at the sides to resemble pen flourishes.

And also the braid on the edges of the B.

I used 2 metallic threads together for the feathery bit.

B is for Book - Work on B

Progress made on the B. I used the grid brocade pattern to guide where I would couch a thick gold thread on the blue. This is a reference to what is called a diaper pattern - usually on the inner portions of a letter.

I also free machined with thinner gold thread round the pattern in the red brocade.
Then used a gold braid to go round the outline (inline?) of the cut out areas of the blue. I will use the same braid to go round the outline when I stitch it to the silk background.

B is for...Book

So, a lovely long day listening to the cricket while I was etching the letters into the silk.

The definition I was using was rather long, so I have edited it some. This will also be part of the series I was doing sometime ago about Communicating. I did Letter, Word, and Language. I have always been meaning to come back to other aspects of Communicating. And if you haven't guessed by now, this one is B is for Book.

Nearly ready for sandwiching and stitching. We have several things going on in the next couple of days, so I probably won't get to it till sometime next week. But I also have to get back to the dress for the fashion show.

Letter - finally at last fini!

Well, that is, I am still stitching the binding at the back, but here you see the full piece.

You may recall that this is the large size piece from the Zoom challenge from the EquilARTeral group.

The sentance at the bottom says "A letter is an element in an alphabetic system." a quote from Wikipedia.
I am VERY pleased with this. It has taken a lot of time, a lot of deliberation and even learning how to do what I needed to do next, but I think the final result works very well. Woo hoo!

Now a question for you. I really wanted the medallion pieces to stand as medallions. But because there is no quilting there, they kind of pop out. I think I have to put a bit of quilting in there somehow. Any ideas?

So, now to work on the final piece for the Connect-Disconnect piece! and a thousand other things I would like to do as well as prepare for teaching!

EquilARTeral - Language

If you recall my post on the 16th Jan, I am making some pieces to the theme "Zoom". The first piece I did - "Words" - is actually the middle of my zoom in/zoom out concept. This is the zoomed out piece. "Language". I have been working on it the last few days."Word" was A5 sized. "Language" is A3 sized.

I had rescued several foreign language dictionaries one time when we went to Hay-on-Wye to the secondhand book shops there. Some of them were actually on outside bookshelves in the rain! So, I wasn't too guilty about using pages from them to create the base layer of the piece. Well, I say that, but as it has been several years before I could give myself permission, you can see that I didn't start ripping them apart straight away! Here is one possible layout when I was starting. I decided to use Tsukineko walnut inks for a bit of colour. Then I looked up several translations for the word "language" on Google and Babelfish, which I then wrote onto the pages I had fused into place. Across near the top I used cuneiform shapes for my own version of a transliteration of the letters for language. I even carved my own cuneiform stamps! I painted the definition of language as well as stamping the word a couple times with different alphabet stamps.

Then I covered the whole thing with this mysterious non woven very thin stuff I got in a shop where they didn't actually know what it was! The one I used over the whole thing was pale beige with images of things like official documents, handwritten letters, and the like. I fused it on with Misty Fuse as well. It was cool because it gave the look of stamped images, but as it was so thin, it looked like a middle layer rather than sitting right on top.

After quilting it, I thought I was done. But I hung it up a while to see what it might need. First of all, the word Language in the middle needed to come out more because everything blended too well.
Then I also decided I needed more of a visual of what I meant by language - which was really communication. I had incorporated a small image from an old tourist language book, but I wanted something you could see from a distance as well. So, I cut and fused the people silhouettes out of green coloured mystery fabric. I think that helped to take the eye around and create a dialogue.

Ha! No pun intended.

I have a plan for the final piece, which will be A1 size. But now, since these two have a similar look and show they are a series, I am not sure about it. It will be Letter and I thought to do an Illuminated Manuscript. However, as I think about it, I may find ways to combine this look with the Illuminated Manuscript look and create something unique...
If it works.

EquilARTeral

This past year I have been meeting with 2 other ladies from the Contemporary Quilt Group in the Berkshire area. We all have different styles and come from different backgrounds, but enjoy working with fabrics artistically. We recently decided to call ourselves. "EquilARTeral" which we feel reflects our differences and interests.

We set ourselves a challenge, which we have slowly been working on. (Well, I have been a bit slower than normal because of my course at college, and then plans to catch up at Christmas fell by the way.) It is called ZOOM because the challenge involves looking at a topic from different distances in a similar manner to zooming in on an online map. So, for instance, you could take Forest, trees, and leaves. Or Person, group, crowd. We are doing 3 pieces, and have settled on A5, A3, A1 for the sizes. The layout can be either landscape or portrait. Also, it is up to you to decide which part of the topic should go with the size you choose.

So, Merete likes working with colour, dyes and paint. She has her C+G Diploma in Patchwork and quilting. Her topic is sunflowers. Jane likes felting and embellishing with an embellisher. She is a graphic designer. Her topic is a concept...using the word "significant" and breaking it into parts. I, (well, how do you describe yourself? Dabbler in everything?) anyway, my topic is words. So, I am doing Letter, Words, and Language. And being contrary ! My small piece is the middle part of the topic. The Zoomed in part will be the large piece and the Zoomed out piece is the middle size.

So, anyway, I had the A5 piece done for sometime, but couldn't decide on the edge treatment. I used rust dyed fabrics, a fabric with words printed, mark making with the soldering iron, and stitch. Today, I decided if I was going to get on with the rest, I needed to complete this. So, I did a blanket stitch. Then I realised that although I liked the look, I also needed quilting, if only to hold the layers together. By the way, the "face" was actually an anomoly in the rusted fabric!

And thus, we have "Words".