I was so happy when my art group decided not to continue our holiday show because it would allow me time to work on bigger, more complex pieces. Of course, I quickly found out that freedom + challenge = artistic paralysis for me. After sitting and contemplating for way too long, I finally started getting back on track after taking a fabulous 5 day workshop with Sue Benner. I could go on and on about everything I loved about the workshop, but I especially appreciated Sue's willingness to work with us individually towards our own personal goals. For me, that meant experimenting with ways to keep fiber work looking loose, more painterly and also incorporating in handstitching and mark making.
I began this piece in Sue's workshop and am really enjoying the process of it. There are many challenges in trying to figure out how to do Sue's method of fabric fusing while keeping the loose edges I like and also being able to incorporate handstitching on top of it.
I'm working on this in two sections. The top half is above and has the hand stitching done. The lower half is ready to be hand stitched.
They will go together into a long, narrow piece something like this, probably with a smooth edge all around as on the left. (the gray frame is the background I shot it on.)
Now looking at the photo, I'm bugged by the light area in the middle, and I'm kind of liking the gray frame, and I can see adding more weight to the bottom......This one might keep me busy for a while.
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