Friday, June 27, 2014

WAVELENGTH - NEW WOOL WORK

Speaking of gifts I've received from quilt buddies.....

 My talented pal Nanette Zeller gave me several embossed clay focal items, made by one of her pals.
 I've had them sitting on my 'urgent' I wanna do something with them pile....
In a fit of trying to get my hand dyed wool pieces better organized, I uncovered this lovely, subtle, ice-dyed small piece of wool.  I've never attached an item shaped like this before....which was challenging I must admit.
The edges were not uniform, some slopping in toward the bottom, others side were opposite. It was a good exercise in proper spacing and thread tension!
 Before I went further with the embellishing, I began to explore other design elements.   
After hauling out what seemed to be half the supplies in my studio....this hand dyed piece of gauze caught my eye.
 So as is often the case....I changed my mind.  The circle motifs were replaced with embroidered squiggles and beads, with a plan to use some gauze.  WELL.....it took me hours to realize I couldn't get small gauze pieces attached to the wool without the shine of fusible web or glue.  Hand stitching didn't hold it well enough.

So.....since not a single other thread in my entire collection was the correct shade.....I pulled these long threads from the gauze...

 .......and hand stitched the small motifs instead.  It was the long way around to achieve these little touches but it worked.  
Detail of the bead embellished clay motif.


 Though I work in many different styles, I'm especially drawn to simple, clean, minimal designs.....featuring a focal element which is quite visible. It draws the viewer in for a closer look where other details keep their interest.
WAVELENGTH   -     10" W  X  8" H
Artist ice-dyed wool, machine stitched, hand 
embroidered, and bead embellished.
  Museum wrapped on wood frame.

Check out what other artists have been up to this week at these links:  Nina-Maries's Off the Wall Friday,   Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, and at Crazy Mom's.

5 comments:

Gwyned Trefethen said...

Your description of your work (I'm especially drawn to simple, clean, minimal designs.....featuring a focal element which is quite visible. It draws the viewer in for a closer look where other details keep their interest.) is precisely why I am drawn to it. What also makes it work so well is the repetition of various elements, but with a tweak each time, such as the vertical dangle of beads from the clay ornament, repeated in the vertical embroidery squiggle with beads, that is then turned horizontal.

Sylvia said...

I enjoy reading about your process! Thanks for sharing!

Robbie said...

From where you started (which was really, really nice) to this end result...wonderful!! Very nice!!

Sarah Craig said...

So beautiful, Mary! And thanks for sharing your process, too. Whoop whoop!!

The Idaho Beauty said...

So different, so lovely. I am especially intrigued by the juxtaposition of vertical quilting lines (at least I think they are quilting lines) and the horizontal lines of bead/stitch embellishing that jag across the piece but with the added tension of two of them turned on end over there on the left. Nice job!