I've been working on this over the weekend when it was a) too wet or b) too hot to be in the garden. I enjoy making rust fabric, but it's hard to find something interesting to make with it, as there is not enough contrast in my rusted fabric alone. I decided to make a fused composition, so liberally borrowing from other artists' styles, I first drew a design. This is A3 size, drawn on two A4 pieces of printer paper taped together. I then cut the shapes out, one by one, and fused them to either rusted fabric or to other fabric that I felt would blend with it. I still wanted a fairly low contrast piece.
The fused pieces are just sitting on the background so there are gaps between some of them. What I'm doing now is deciding whether the fabrics are right. I am in 2 minds about the upper left-hand background (especially the horizontal stripes) and the orange piece of the first woman's hair. Your comments please!
10 comments:
Lovely - I think the piece look fine right now - interested in watching how you stitch it!!
Wow!!!!!
This piece will be stunning!!!!!
Gorgeous, I love what you have done with the rust fabric. I hope you find it easier to stitch than I did with mine. I got there in the end.
Those are beautiful rusted pieces Shirley! I agree with Linda that perhaps that rusted piece in the upper left would be more effective it was running in the other direction, as are the one on the right and the one in the lower left. I just love, love, love those darker brown pieces...they remind me of fossils.
Please let us know when you finish this wonderful piece!!
I agree that rusted cloth is seldom interesting in itself but you composition brings out the subtle variations and makes it intriguing. The two solid black areas don't seem to fit in in my way of seeing; too dark (high contrast) an no variation in color makes them appear to belong to a different set. The orange piece seems to have some shibori but it is hard to see in the small size image.
Shirley, I like the upper left corner, it provides a plainer contrast to the other work. Good idea to cut it up and applique, I agree rusted fabric is a bit ho hum.
Shirley, this is beautiful. I like the upper left corner. It is a nice compliment to the curves in the rest of the piece. I think if you draped the hair like you did the 2nd woman's, you may like it better. I look forward to seeing how you complete it. Cheers.
That is beautiful. I especially like how you've done the hair on the girl/young woman in the lower right section.
I quite like this as it is. I also like the horizontal stripe in the top left as it directs you across the the piece to the circle. However, I saw two shapes that could be women, and if this is something you want to highlight ie is the point of your composition, perhaps you need to make them a focal point by darkening, or adding stitching, or detail with cloth/paint, or some other way, so your eye goes to them and is led into the composition. The shapes to me appear well balanced, but I also find my eyes searching for a resting point, as if everything was competing. I think making a focus towards the centre and perhaps knocking back some of the other competitive colourings with stitch might help? Just my thoughts since you asked!! But again, I love what you've managed to do with the rust - some of the nicest fabics I've seen!
Oh, I should have said, if abstract is your thing, then it's great! (you could also put a focal point into it - if it was mine I would be thinking in opposites, ie a deep indigo square or 3, small, but positioned just in the right place!!)
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