J & J Tapestry

My friends, John and Judy have been long time supporters of my work. Judy has loved my clothing and gets pieces specially made  for herself . But John has only admired the work from afar. It takes a man with a certain gumption to want to actually wear something I make. I’m working on that!

At any rate, Judy decided she would order a wall piece for their bedroom to cheer John up after their move from the East coast. It would be a large piece stitched with Solvy.  Though I have a number of them around the studio,  none were a rectangular size just right for above the bed.

This was a work of love. It was satisfying for me to work in this technique though the larger scale was challenging ie:  trying to control the fabric.

It is a mystery process because the sheath of  Solvy obscures the work. So I lay it out, pin pin pin and hoped for the best.  When the Solvy was ready to be washed out I could see the piece for the first time. I had to climb a ladder in order to get enough distance to see the whole piece!

 

Because I use hand painted scraps there is always some bleeding that occurs during washout.

The composition was a blending of darks into lights. The dark portion used some brown scraps, so in the washing, some brown bled onto the surrounding white scraps and made what I thought was a muddy mess. I had my art group critique it and though they all loved it, they didn’t mind the muddy area but thought it needed to have more balance. I agreed and so, I superimposed more light strips on top of the muddy places, then added some darks in the white zone for tension. Afterwards I felt like it came together beautifully…