Tif – March Finale

Here it is…

The various red and blue merge to form an overall impression of the colours while the different strips bring a bit of life to the composition. On looking closer at the detail you discover..

Beads hiding in the red.This worked a bit better than the blue which I think stood out a bit.

The beads in the chain stitch require closer inspection. And by you would have noticed the shape to the left. The flash unfortunately picks it out more than it appears in natural daylight. What is that shape about? Its about me. Its my stylised shadow as I’m always in every piece of work that I do even if it doesn’t appear so. Its my selections, my decisions, even as deep as my cultural background that comes out in every piece I create.  So this has been my introspection into detail, the closer you look at a piece the more it reveals.  I know what the red and blue means to me…I wonder what it means to you?

March TIF – Update 2

We are now up to 11 days over 35 degC (which means about 110F approx!). Most of the time its been 39-40 deg.C and I’ve succumbed to the gastro bug. But I did get a bit of stitching in before the gastro hit. Here is the beginning…

And lastly the red was placed over the top part…

You can also see that I’ve started stitching as well (left side). That’ll be next week’s update. My usual Sunday monthly market has been cancelled because of the heat so I may get an extra bit of stitching done then. I think the reds and blues are blending well together. I did have some burgundy with the red but it stood out too much so it got scrapped. I haven’t had a chance to swing by any other blogs as yet so I’m keen to get onto that as soon as I’m over this gastro thing. Thanks to everyone who has commented on my blogs so far, its really great to know someone’s looking at all this!

TIF – March update 1

Do you ever have those weeks when everytime you go to blog you have something else that “critically” needs your attention? Well this has been a week like that for me . Here is the latest. Decided to do a fabric collage inspired by the work of Ailie Snow . I met Ailie at the Geelong Fibre Forum last year and she’s not only a wonderful person but a fantastic textile artist. So here are my fabrics…

The intention is that I will use small pieces so that from a distance the piece simply looks blue and red. But as you get closer you then see its made up of lots of different blues and reds. And then when you get even closer you notice something else too but I’ll keep that under wraps for now!

 Here is a rough sketch of the design:

Roughly 1/2 red and 1/2 blue but I’ll probably make the blue more dominant than the red to achieve a peace within the design. The curly bit is going to be done in beads at this point. Anything and everything may change however!! It all depends on how it all works out. Also I’m intending to hand stitch – not sure how long that will last as I’m always impatient for a piece to get moving along. Hand stitching will allow me to use a chunkier thread.

TIF – March Musings…

So this month’s challenge is the little things, the small moments. Had to think a bit about just what this meant and this is what I came up with… 

Often we view a landscape but dont’ take in the detail. I was sitting waiting one day. To pass time I was doing a journalling exercise where you write down just what you see. The idea is to get you to really look at a place, to look for the unusal and out of place. Then my eye caught it. A drinking glass sitting on top of a permapine post in the carpark. The carpark was by a park with a children’s playground alongside. What was the glass doing there? What was its story? It wasn’t a pastic cup but a GLASS one. Who takes glass to a park???

This month’s piece I’m going to try to make a work that on first glance doesn’t reveal itself. Its only when you stop and take a closer look that it reveals its secrets. How? Don’t know yet! Too ambitious? Maybe, but then its meant to be a challenge!

On another topic, sometimes when I’ve commented on others work or people have commented on mine they have emailed. What is the etiquette here? Does one email back or comment on the appropriate blog? I’m never quite sure what people are expecting!