Some finished work

 
I feel better - I finished 3 more pieces for the Jonesboro, Arkansas show. Having 3 snow days following a weekend was a major help - giving me so much extra time. I really needed it, too, because the last piece gave me such angst in trying to figure how to attach the metals to the fabric, while retaining the integrity of the metal. 

This piece follows the "Reeds" piece previously shown. This is titled "Dunes", as it reminds me of the beach. Thanks Jennifer - for not letting me chop half of it off and giving me a hint at how to fix it. Add some cattails on the left!

Here is a close-up of the copper "grasses". On this one I thread painted some of the short green grass on water soluble stabilizer and tulle in a hoop, then dissolved, trimmed and stitched them on to cover the bottoms of the paddles. They just didn't look right in this piece without the grass.





This long skinny piece I just call Chains - because that's all I could think of. I started out with just the center black rectangle, then added the narrow rust, but realized that wasn't enough, either. So I gave it more presence by adding more black.




Here is a closeup. Red copper wire pounded flat and kind of woven together. The gold looking diamond on the orange fabric is actually bronze mesh - it's a metal cloth. I pound this with my hammer and it gives it really cool highlights. This was a lot of fun. I will make more like this.  No angst!

This is the angst piece - "Tranquility"! So titled because it does look very simple and tranquil - NOW! - but not so tranquil trying to figure out how to actually accomplish it caused me great anguish last week.




 Below is the left panel - the gingko branch. The branch is copper that was dragged through liver of sulphur to darken it and then hammered to hold its shape. I hand-stitched the branch to the fabric with smoke monofilament thread.

The gingko leaves were cut out of thin copper sheeting, hammered so they would keep their shape, and then the lines were carved in with a stylus. I hand-stitched these leaves to the branch with copper metallis thread. You can also see the little bit of free motion stitching on the "moon".

 This is the detail of the panel on the right - the bamboo trees. These were cut from the bronze metal mesh. This stuff really hurts when you are cutting it - it's very sharp and sticks in your fingers. I was having a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to stitch these onto the panel. I tried just stitching straight down the center with clear monofilament thread, but the holes looked huge and it was horrible. Took that off. Then my biggest fan (Steve) suggested that I stitch them on the "nodes" - where they have their growth spurts, or whatever. I did that with smoke monofilament thread. The bamboo leaves are copper sheeting that I hand cut, hammered, and embossed lines. So how to get these to stay on?  I actually did it on the sewing machine with monofilament thread. I then dabbed some clear glue on the thread to help hold it.

So - my 3 new pieces for Jonesboro. Sigh. And now I'm having a 3 day weekend (MLK) and my muse went on vacation. I have accomplished nothing. I have a piece on the table that I'm playing with, but as Steve says, I'm at a wall. Working working working for so long and so intense. Need to just breathe. 

Thanks for reading and I would appreciate any suggestions - like how I'm going to ship these things! lol!