Ferns

Last fall, I took a workshop with Fiber Genius and creativity coach Laura Cater Woods. I've never been a big 'taker of classes', prefering instead to learn on my own through reading and experimenting. It is with my loner bent firmly intact that I must recommend a class with Laura. She has a gift for challenging each student where they're at. Our class was a mix of very new---I mean 'hardly ever made art' new---to experienced with exhibit history. Each of us grew and no two works looked anything alike. That impresses me the most...when a class is led and the student's style is still visible.

Here's my initial doodle:


And here's where I went with it:

The fabric doesn't quite capture the spontenaity of the sketch, but I'm still pleased with the piece so far.

Bias cut turquoise fabric is added to define some dark lines I want emphasized:


At this point, I'm bothered by the center two background pieces. They're too light. I've not been making smart background choices lately. It's too late to replace the pieces--everything's already glued down. So I decided to paint...in my new sewing room...on my new ironing board cover...with no plastic:

I'm a genius. Let's just think of this as the baptism, the maiden voyage of my sewing room.

The paint (even though it was Setacolor Translucent) obscured the texture of the prints and made them look too much like the background piece on the left. So then, I took the whole thing to my kitchen sink and tried to 'unpaint' with the sprayer. Then the glue began to loosen and pieces began to fall off. The vintage fabrics--content unknown--curled into tight little twists. Which means I had to spread it out on the floor and pin several itty bitty pieces in place to dry flat. Oh yeah, I'm just raw talent in motion today.

The end result ended up being just right:

The background is just the right amount of texture and contrast.

Tomorrow, I contemplate thread.