Sunday 27 January 2008

Stars and TIF

As promised, I must show you the star postcards I received at the end of the week from my friends at MixedMediaATC_UK.



This first one is from Becky and is made from embellished (needle felted) fibres. There are some lovely textures in this card.



This second card is in mixed media and I am very intrigued by some of the effects.




Finally, this fabric card is from Liz and is lovely. The photograph does not show the material very well and the base fabric has an irridescent sheen. Liz has used a heat tool to burn thro the top layer and in some places right thro all the layers. The stars are made of foil trapped under net.

I spent yesterday working on the Take it Further Challenge. When I first sat down at the embellisher my mind went completely blank and I couldn't even think how to start! I know I'm new to embellishing but even so! Anyway, I decided to start with a base of fabrics like scrim, organza and chiffon which I could then embellish thro from the back if necessary and then to top this off with various wool fibres.


As you can see I have cut the base fabric larger than the 6x6" format of the finished piece to allow for shrinkage and I've also roughly marked the spacings for the various parts of the seascape. The pic above shows the first stage with wool fibres on top of base fabrics.


Similarly the distant shore was put in with base fabrics topped by wool fibres.



At this stage I had put in the distant shoreline and embellished both from the front and the back.

As you can see I forgot to take any photos during the remainder of the embellishing, but I followed the same procedure of layering fabrics and wool fibres. The foreground layer also includes some angelina. I think that the distant land and the shoreline need some adjustment as the land is too deep and I think the shoreline also needs to be thinner. I would like to get more light into the cloudscape and into the area of foreshore in the bottom third of the image and maybe a little more depth to the sea. The area of shore/vegetation in the foreground is still slightly diagonal altho I had intended to make this more horizontal, but I think it is in fact working. Now I have to decide whether to include some stitchwork and maybe bead and other embellishment to the foreground. Help! The next challenge starts in 3 days! (make that 5 days! I thought there were 29 days in this month! Oops!)

13 comments:

Judy Scott said...

wonderful work here love the colours ~ Judy xxx

Mrs Moog said...

It's looking great Julie - I love the colours and it's lovely to see it developing before our very eyes :)

Lesley xx

artisbliss said...

Wow, this turned out really well. I love the colors together.

sharon young said...

Hi Julie
This is a great piece, lovely colours and textures, and it really has a feeling of the sea. As you asked , I think it would just bring out the elements you mentioned in your post a bit more if you added a little bit of stitch, maybe hand as it's not so invasive as machine , in the areas you want to define.
I also think the diagonal on the shore line is working, it feels natural.
Hope that helps:-)

Anonymous said...

Based on your collage and paintings, I would say it is working tonally but is missing the raggyness of the collage (texture)but maybe only on the bottom half. Great start!

Gina said...

That is looking fabulous Julie. It's great to see it progressing.
Gina x

Edmund (the explorer) Nesbitt said...

Wow Julie, you have been working hard! Love your new Header too...I think I will do a new one for February! Make sure you visit my blog on Wednesday...........
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh something really good!
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh and great you are coming to Pickering! Looking forward to meeting up!

Anonymous said...

Very beautiful, I think embroidery and other embellishment would be perfect on it. Your skills on the embellisher do not say "beginner", perhaps because you paint too. Your work is lovely and I will enjoy visiting your blog often.

Debbi Baker said...

Your piece is looking great Julie and I love your banner!! Enjoyed reading back several posts as well...

Julie said...

Deb, thank you very much and thank you for looking in on my blog.

Jacqui, thank you for your comments. I still have some work to do, probably a little hand stitching.

Becky Mairi Farrell said...

Julie, this looks fantastic. I also feel that the top half is working better than the bottom, which maybe needs some more definition. I love the colours and composition, that diagonal line does work well and add interest. It's great to see how you've built this up as I'm also planning a landscape on the embellisher, though I won't get to it til the second half of February. It's great to see how you've developed the image through the month and I think your explorations have really helped you to get to this lovely final piece.

Dot said...

Love your new banner Julie! And thanks for sharing your work in progress. It's gorgeous!!

Elis Cooke said...

Hi Julie
That is just lovely... love the mix of colours! namaste Elis.