Class 7 #2 WIP: Summer Daydreams fabric collage auditioning background
My journal entry by the same name is a magazine paper collage. I am transferring this design idea into fabric. It is pinned and sitting awaiting my eye. It will be number 2 for my Class 7 homework. Since I played doing the warm colors. I played doing the background colors. Now I am thinking about how I will put these two elements together, machine stitch or by hand? Background will be machine and hand stitched first. Since it was a journal entry it was already designed. I initially thought no way can I reproduce the imagery into fabric, but I think I allowed myself to use the colors, scale, and lines of the journal entry while letting go and simply playing with my stash and what I like to do. When I started thinking too much, I put it aside and played with my two other hand stitched elements which have no plan and will be improvisitionally sewn using machine and hand stitching. This is what I learned about doing this. I rarely work from more than a pencil sketch image allowing myself the freedom of color selection when I stitch. Going from a fully colored journal page made me start thinking too much and trying too hard to match the color palette. I had to let go of my journal and allow myself to play with the fabrics I already had to work with. I put out three piles of yellow/orange and blue/green with a third pile of fabrics which had these colors in them. I painted fabric and trims too. I selected warm threads only. I have not selected cool threads yet. I found I can work from thinking back into play mode if I allow myself to let go of expectations and trust that my eye will provide the color choices I need. If I didn't like something I pulled it off or covered it up. I remembered Lesley's words don't kiss too much but my lines did need to radiate so I broke the rule in some places and followed it in others. I squinted a lot. I also worked in odd numbers moving fabrics around in threes throughout the piece or singly without repetition elsewhere. I started by placing my fabric warm cirlce inside of my paper journal collage. It worked. It felt at home and allowed me to move onto the background playing with fabrics I'd painted and selected. I cut and laid out all fabrics except one corner. Then I went back and fused pieces down that worked well. Sometimes it changed, yet sometimes I undid it and reattached it piece by piece. When I was done I finished the corner I had left undone. Once that was done I went back and made sur my trims were balanced and I added a few fabrics here and there. I always let a piece sit for a few hours before stitching. This is when I go back and check for things and envision my next steps. I knew the stitching I wanted to do in the center from my waiting and watching. I will do the same with the whole piece. Stitching background, then waiting while the top is put back on and allowing myself to let it soak in so that I know what I want to do. It is not overthinking, but letting go of the thinking that helps me. I set it aside and that is when I have my aha moments and my creative solutions register. My floor is a mess of stacks of cut fabrics. After I'm done I will restack them by colors or in warm and cool stacks if the pieces are small. I thing I need to do and remember is to save my snipped of trims that are already stitched like the green pieces here. It adds texture and I usually throw them out. Now I know I will use them incorporating these textural elements into collage work. Im enjoying fabric collage. I would like to do a series. My play pieces will be inspired by this (albeit loosely) I think I've discovered something that I'd like to explore more of.
Class 7 #2 WIP: Summer Daydreams fabric collage auditioning background
My journal entry by the same name is a magazine paper collage. I am transferring this design idea into fabric. It is pinned and sitting awaiting my eye. It will be number 2 for my Class 7 homework. Since I played doing the warm colors. I played doing the background colors. Now I am thinking about how I will put these two elements together, machine stitch or by hand? Background will be machine and hand stitched first. Since it was a journal entry it was already designed. I initially thought no way can I reproduce the imagery into fabric, but I think I allowed myself to use the colors, scale, and lines of the journal entry while letting go and simply playing with my stash and what I like to do. When I started thinking too much, I put it aside and played with my two other hand stitched elements which have no plan and will be improvisitionally sewn using machine and hand stitching. This is what I learned about doing this. I rarely work from more than a pencil sketch image allowing myself the freedom of color selection when I stitch. Going from a fully colored journal page made me start thinking too much and trying too hard to match the color palette. I had to let go of my journal and allow myself to play with the fabrics I already had to work with. I put out three piles of yellow/orange and blue/green with a third pile of fabrics which had these colors in them. I painted fabric and trims too. I selected warm threads only. I have not selected cool threads yet. I found I can work from thinking back into play mode if I allow myself to let go of expectations and trust that my eye will provide the color choices I need. If I didn't like something I pulled it off or covered it up. I remembered Lesley's words don't kiss too much but my lines did need to radiate so I broke the rule in some places and followed it in others. I squinted a lot. I also worked in odd numbers moving fabrics around in threes throughout the piece or singly without repetition elsewhere. I started by placing my fabric warm cirlce inside of my paper journal collage. It worked. It felt at home and allowed me to move onto the background playing with fabrics I'd painted and selected. I cut and laid out all fabrics except one corner. Then I went back and fused pieces down that worked well. Sometimes it changed, yet sometimes I undid it and reattached it piece by piece. When I was done I finished the corner I had left undone. Once that was done I went back and made sur my trims were balanced and I added a few fabrics here and there. I always let a piece sit for a few hours before stitching. This is when I go back and check for things and envision my next steps. I knew the stitching I wanted to do in the center from my waiting and watching. I will do the same with the whole piece. Stitching background, then waiting while the top is put back on and allowing myself to let it soak in so that I know what I want to do. It is not overthinking, but letting go of the thinking that helps me. I set it aside and that is when I have my aha moments and my creative solutions register. My floor is a mess of stacks of cut fabrics. After I'm done I will restack them by colors or in warm and cool stacks if the pieces are small. I thing I need to do and remember is to save my snipped of trims that are already stitched like the green pieces here. It adds texture and I usually throw them out. Now I know I will use them incorporating these textural elements into collage work. Im enjoying fabric collage. I would like to do a series. My play pieces will be inspired by this (albeit loosely) I think I've discovered something that I'd like to explore more of.