The devil is in the detail

First block of week 16

Well four actually.  I have finished the four corner blocks for the geometric pattern for this week.  As usual I didn't have the right fabrics for the task so had to take another trip to the patchwork shop.  I had sewn the block from the fabrics in my stash and it looked terrible.  Why does that always happen, or is just me?

There is so much work in this block that I am going to spread it over the two weeks. Block 1 this week and block 2 next, week 17.  I think I should have needle turned the centres.  Too late now.

Week 15

This weeks design is the result of seeing a face behind the face.  Let me explain.  There was one metal sculpture that was totally different from every other female face.  It did not have anything in common with any other female face, in fact it had those same staring eyes you see on the males.

The whole face was so dissimilar to the others.  Smaller finer nose, the lips were a different shape, the face seemed to be smaller.  I kept looking at it thinking I just wasn't seeing it.  Then I put it into Photoshop and another woman emerged.  It was as though she was inside waiting to be found.

This face reminded me of a Picasso or Dali painting so I used the same type of blocks of colour and a black edge.  I have quilted the background following the wave pattern of the printed fabric.

I think this is the end of faces for a while.  I may come back to them at a later stage.  I want to move on to some of the gardens around the Pagoda.

Week 12

It's only 11:10pm and I've finished this weeks design!  Amazing.

This is the first of my female faces.  It is a young girl.  At first I thought there were lots of images of the same young girl but when I looked closely they were all different.  Which one to choose?  They all seemed to express something different.  These are 6 of the 20 something young girl type faces.

 

I tried drawing them, tracing them and after several attempts at sewing them, that ended up in the bin, finally picked up the camera and went back to the pagoda to take some more photos.  It was mid afternoon when I arrived and the angle of the sun seemed to reveal a whole new perspective.  The actual size of the faces is about equivalent to the palm of your hand, they are not big.  On the roof of the pagoda you don't really see them unless you look closely.

I printed a series of them out that I enlarged to fit an A4 page and this image stood out from the rest.

 

She had a calm, wistful look. I then put the image into photoshop to accentuate the highlights and change the colours.  I had decided on a moon theme for the female faces and I wanted it to look as though she was reflecting moonlight.  It was this altered image that I printed out onto fabric, cut out and placed against the moon background.

Earlier in my research I came across the work of the "Norbulingka Institute" and  I received a comment from Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo  . This led me to her website and I have tried to use the same simplicity and purity that she uses in her work in this image.

Week 11

So, here I am at the end of the male faces.  There are lots more but I have decided on 3 male and 3 female faces.

And, I have finally got those staring eyes right.

This challenge is proving to be a huge learning experience, especially these faces.  I am starting to get he hang of free motion machine stitching and in these faces am starting to get a more even stitch.  But working in fabric is so different from paint and pencil.  I started thinking that I would just copy the photographs but then found that the faces would take on a life of their own when put on fabric.  It is if they were saying "this is how I want to be seen this time."  Writers often say that their characters take on a life independent of them.  I feel the same thing with these faces. This is the face I started with.  He seems so much more present when transposed to fabric.

I find the collages used in the animation of Mohammad Reza Abedi in the The Cypress and the Crow really interesting so have tried to use some of that in this face. I have never used collage before but will use it more in the future.

Week 10

All that cleaning yesterday raised so much dust that I have had asthma today and spent a good part of the day in bed.  Hence, it is almost down to the wire for this weeks challenge.

This is the second of my male faces from the roof of the pagoda.  I have finally found out that every face is different because they represent the lesser gods of the Hindu faith.  The artists did use the faces of people they knew as models for the castings.  So, I am treating them as peoples faces not gods as I have to admit I find that it doesn't sit well with my faith and makes me uncomfortable.

 

This is the first time that I have drawn a picture onto fabric and I used "inktense" pencils to do this. One thing I noticed about the male faces is that they all seem to have protruding eye and I just couldn't draw this effect.

 

I tried by adding a light water-colour highlight but it didn't work.  I just couldn't get that intense look.  In fact the face is rather effeminate.

 

Next was the quilting.  Completely uncharted territory for me.  Firstly I don't have the range of colours in my thread collection so I am going to have to buy some more to morrow to finish the bottom half of the face.  But I'm getting better at the stitching and will improve with more experience. 

Week 9

It is time to start on the faces that sit on the edge of the roof of the Pagoda.  I am not at all confident in my free machine stitching skills as yet.  (Only 9 hours so far, 290 to go.)

As the metal impressions around the roof were stylised I wanted my image to reflect this.

The first face is  the sun who is represented as a man's gold face.  I cut an applique piece in bronze fabric and then drew a face onto the fabric.  I didn't trace it as I wanted a folk art type drawing like I had seen on the Kantha embroidered  quilts.

I used a piece of fabric I had dyed for the background and a chalk pencil for the drawing as I knew this could be removed with an art gum eraser.  I then appliqued the main outline in place and sewed around the details in a thread which was the same colour as the fabric.  This held the fabric in place and I had a guide to follow after I erased the chalk pencil.  I then used a gold metallic thread to highlight the details of the face and hair.  I used a fabric pen to give a bit of shadow.  I then indulged myself by quilting the background with suns. 

Block No 5

Firstly, sorry about the low resolution on the last block.  I have nearly used up all my upload for the month so had to make the images smaller.  This idea may morph into more than one block or it might not work at all, only time will tell.  Working with shades of grey is quite a challenge in itself.

The first elephant

When I think of Asian elephants I think of India.  This is where, with exception of the circus or the zoo, I have had my most personal experiences of elephants.  For me. their presence is so intertwined with the life of the inhabitants that it is impossible to think of them separately.  

The resounding images that stay with me of India is the beautiful colours of the sari's of the women.  The use of gold stitching, beads and bright colours in their clothing as they would float like beautiful birds in the midst of rubbish and that dull colour of a mass of humans.  Even doing hard manual labour, the women looked beautiful.

 

One of the hotels we stayed in was the home of a Maharajah.  He and his family lived on the top floor and the lower floors were rented out as a hotel.  All the walls had the most amazing painting.  Again lots of gold.  (We only had electricity for a few hours a day so never had good light to take photos.)

All those bells on the elephants .  I have used colonial knots to try and represent these.  As to the shape, I loosely used the design off the curtains in one of the bedrooms.

 

I used a batik base with a sheer printed fabric over the top of it and then stitched this with gold thread.  I appliqued the design onto the sheer fabric first then layered it onto the batik.

I stitched the outline using a metallic thread and then outlined the piece using colonial knots and some back stitch.  ( I used crotchet thread to do this.)  So this weeks design. 

The Bollywood elephant.

Week 4

This weeks design is centred on the elephants that stand guard at the entrance to the Pagoda.

I have been doing some research into Nepal recently.  I knew it was located in the Himalayan Mountains to the north of India.  That there had been the murder of the Royal Family, that this is where the Sherpas come from, that Mount Everest is located there, that some good textiles come from this region.  But that is about the depth of my knowledge.  The topography of the country ranges from valleys and plains that are only 100 -330m above sea level to the High Himalayas where the highest mountains in the world are found.

The climate ranges from tropical through subtropical, cool temperate, temperate, alpine to arctic.  This means that there is a huge range of vegetation's and animals.  Because of it's location there has been waves of immigrants and invasions into the region mixing with the indigenous population.  In the 1991 census the population was 19.6 million. This included fifty different groups with their sub-divisions and classes, each having its own cultural background and language.

The two major religions are Hinduism and Buddhism which have influenced each other and in some places are found to represent an amalgam of these and other religious beliefs.  You can see this in the Pagoda.  I was really confused at one point as I was sure I was looking at the same art I had seen in India but this was a Buddhist Temple.  Well not in the strictest sense.

Elephants are seen all over India. Even today in the chaotic traffic of Delhi you will often see an elephant in amongst the traffic.

In States such as Rajastan the elephants live in stables attached to the houses of their owners.  They are painted and decorated lovingly.  I like the folk art type representations of the elephant that you see in textiles and it is this tradition that I will draw upon for my design.

(These Images were taken on a trip to India in 2006)
When you stand next to an elephant you have to admit they are impressive!

 
 

What am I going to do with the berries

Pam asked me this question and I have been thinking, what am I going to do with those berries?

When the light strikes the fabric at an angle the relief of the design printed on the fabric reflects the light but looking straight down you can't see it.  So how about something like this?