The devil is in the detail

Week 28

So now to the faces of the Goddess.  She has so many faces and all are just a little different one from the other.  So I have decided to take just three.  Well actually two, one is a reverse image of another. 

She never looks you in the eye, you have to get down low and look up to get this view, but if you do she looks straight at you.

When I photographed her she had this slight golden glow all around her so I have accentuated this by adding a sort of aura.  Then when you looked at some of the faces you could see that the details had been painted on.  So, I printed the image I manipulated and then painted on the features as they were on these parts of the statue. 

I only outlined some of the image with stitching as it is only 6" square and any more would have detracted from the details.  I have kept to the aquamarine colour for the background to link this piece to the others that have gone before.

week 27

The statue of the Goddess is blessed with so many details, each one as interesting as the next and I keep finding more detail the closer I look.  Because it is so dusty and uncared for you don't realise how beautiful some of the details are till you contemplate them.

This week I have taken the necklace as my inspiration.  On the statue it just looks like a relief and an attractive shape.

It is quiet small and not the right size or shape to fit a 6" block.  So, I had to redraw it to fit the shape.  Then I had to imagine what it might have looked like as a necklace.  I searched images of the Goddess on the net and all those in colour had the stones coloured blue.  This fitted my aquamarine theme for the Goddess.

  The Chinese Buddhist goddess of compassion is depicted here with many arms, heads and eyes, symbolizing her attentiveness to the needs of the suffering-her ability to see all things and perform miraculous deeds on behalf of those in need.   This Goddess has so many different forms in different countries

Week 26 - The half way point

Yes 6 months have elapsed since I began this challenge.  I am surprised that I have been able to keep at it.  But they do say that if you do a thing long enough it will turn into a habit.

This week I continue with the goddess of compassion.  I have decided to make the aquamarine colour the connective element it these pieces.  I looked at the statue and found her feet beautiful to contemplate.  I know that sounds strange but the more I looked at the detail the more serene I found them. 

Every time I am in the Pagoda there are always people coming and going.  Tourists, passers by, the curious and non ever seem to take the time to contemplate the beauty of the place.  It is, just take a quick look, a photo and then on with our lives.  To represent this I used the modern shoe fabric. I kept the blue fabric continuous, to show the length of time the statue represents and the shoe fabric disjointed, like our modern day lives.

I found trying to outline the design on the legs very difficult because of the size.  Perhaps I should have just drawn this in and I used the aquamarine thread to out line the legs to represent a sort of aura.

week 25

I have now turned my attention to a dusty sculpture that sits behind a very scratched perspex cover in a dark corner of the pagoda.  It is in a difficult position to get photos of, yet, the more I look at it the more I see in the detail.  So, it fits this challenge.  It is called the Lokewesaar Goddess and is an icon important to Tibetan Buddhism.  She is also known as the Goddess of compassion.  I just can not get a photo of the complete statue and I can not find an image that does it justice.

She has many faces and it is the huge number of arms that first catch your attention.  When you look at the hand there is a design on the palm which is supposed to be an eye for her to see all the suffering in the world.

Aquamarine is the colour of compassion.  This week I have used that colour as my background and on this I have placed two of the hands and drawn the 'eye' on the palm of each.

 

Week 24

Well this is it for the bamboo, the last one.  I was a bit ambitious here.  I wanted to recreate the chaos that is the inside of the bamboo grove.  It is a mess.  Stems going in all directions and leaves everywhere, yet, there is a wild sort of organisation here. 

 

Doing this challenge drives me crazy, but, I learn something new each week.  This week I used a piece of green fabric I had dyed for the background.  What I should have done is quilt the bamboo leaf pattern before I did the applique.  Working in a 6" square I found quilting amongst all the shapes trying.  I also had to settle for a representation not an exact copy.  There were just too many shapes and layers in the original photo.  Still, I'm not unhappy with the result.

Week 23

I have been having trouble getting into TypePad and I just can't get a good photo of this weeks work.  So I will have to use what I have.

I used rayon type thread and it really reflects the light so this is not a true representation of the piece.  There were new bamboo shoots coming up in the grove.  Some were covered with this white mould (I think), I'm not sure if this is normal of if some kind of insect has got into the bamboo.  Not all shoots were the same colour and I find it amazing that a bright green stem can come from this drab shoot.

The more I look at the detail of the bamboo the more I see.  No wonder Asian artists find this grass so inspiring.  I just love these really dark stems some almost look black.

Week 22

What a tragic!  I just couldn't accept not getting this weeks challenge done.  So now I'm going to be tired in the morning. Blow.

I am still exploring the colours and line of the bamboo.  I was struck by the contrast of the yellow and green and the horizontal and vertical line in one lone stem.

  

I couldn't find the colour I wanted so dyed a piece of cotton folding it so that the colour would take in lines.  I then took two pieces of fabric of the same colour and sewed a thin cord between the layers to represent the horizontal lines.  I stitched the vertical lines through all the layers as the quilting.

This random use of lines could be used in blocks to make a quilt.  You could use different colour

combinations and get quite good effects.  I must try it in a drawing program.

Week 21

Another view of the bamboo.  When I looked closely there were so many variations of colour in the main stems, from almost white through to black brown.

In an effort to replicate the striations I attempted a little dyeing with various levels of success.  So, I used some of my hand dyed fabric and some commercial ones.  I then used a little white fabric paint to get some highlights.  The white fabric gave me the most grief. 

As the colours of the fabric were the focal point I have kept the quilting to the background, outlines and some shadows.

Week 20

 

I have decided to move onto the grove of bamboo that surrounds the Pagoda.  Bamboo is so common and used for so many things it's beauty is often overlooked.  Although this is not the case with Chinese art where the bamboo is often the centre of attention.

 

This week I decided to look at the beauty of the leaves and used one small section of this photo as my inspiration.

There are so many colours when you look into the grove and this kind of misty light the deeper you go.

I printed the photo onto fabric and then outlined this with stitching to define the lines.  Then I printed the image again this time onto a sheer fabric.  This I placed out the first image slightly out of alignment to give the background that misty look.

Again I outlined the background shapes and then the colours in those in the foreground so that the leaves would stand out in front of the Bamboo.  I framed the image against a batik fabric to make it stand out and accentuate the raw edges of the sheer fabric.

week 19 again

Well I have managed to get it finished,  but it changed!  I found once I had appliqued those stars that there was too much open space.  I think I should have made those original stars larger.  So, I needle turned smaller stars between the reverse applique stars.

 

I don't know if it's because I'm tired or because I did some of the quilting in a metallic thread but I just can't seem to get a good straight on shot of this piece.  I have tried with two different cameras without much success.

The hand stitching took most of the day and I like needle turn applique far better than the reverse technique.  But both have their place and you can get differences in heights.  But working on shapes that are so small and trying to get sharp corners is a pain.  I think I will go back and quilt the triangles in the corners caused by putting this on point.