Embroidered Collage

I tend to create my collage compositions by physically arranging and rearranging the components until I find something that works.  This is part of the reason that I find it difficult to consistantly use a sketchbook.

Some time ago I was playing around with some paper I had from when Marissa sold her scraps instead of creating her own collages and realized that some of them fit nicely to form a tree with a branch.  And maybe I could put a bird on that.  For my next project I want to develop the idea more thoroughly on an 8"x10" canvas.

This is my first try, almost the original idea, except I had to keep cutting bird shapes until I realized that maybe a sitting bird would be better than a profiled bird.

I was starting to put the pieces away - since I didn't have time to start working on the background - and realized I had some other pieces in similar colors.  So out they came and I tried again.

My second attempt is more individual and I like it even better.  Putting in the paper elements with the tree echoes interspersed with the building echoes is much more interesting.  I have no idea where the quirky fat bird came from, somehow I just cut it out and started scribbling on it.  I'll be using different paper for that part, of course.  The yellow cardstock was just as a placeholder.  I need the background in place before I can decide on the color, though.

I mentioned that I had painted a 12x12 background - it was the blue shown here with more pieces on it.  The painting is slightly streaky but mostly solid.  I have had the teal silk rods for some time and then acquired the interestingly dyed cheesecloth in a trade.  When my papers came and I could see the true colors I thought the one in the upper right would go well with the materials I already had, so I played around a bit and came up with this arrangement.  I auditioned a couple different colors of fabric for the upper left, but liked this solid deep purple best.

This will be the first piece that I'll deliberately try to do on a grid or on quarters, following some of the thoughts that developed during and after QSDS.  I intend to make the painted quarter more interesting, collage on most of the right side, and stitch the upper left together.  I'm sure that I'll add more embellishment as I go, but this is the framework of my idea.

I adhered the sheer fabric to the painting and stitched in a few boxes, as intended.

This is what I expect it will look like after the canvas is mounted on the stretcher bars.

I followed my plan but I'm just not satisfied with it.  I think it's the lack of texture.  It's almost all implied.  Only the stitched lines and the counted piece are raised from the extremely flat surface.  The irregularity of the rectangles bothers me too.  Not that any of them are regular, so it is a deliberate effect, but it's disturbing, especially with the calming impression I get from the basic green monochrome.

I did sit down and consider truly transforming the surface, layering paper and texture paint on top, working it over in some fashion, as I haven't actually attached the counted portion yet.  But when I started pulling papers I just wasn't happy with that idea either.  I think I need to put this piece aside for awhile, a couple weeks maybe, and come back to it with fresh eyes. 

  I tried sketching arrangements of the little squares, but physically moving them around was so much more effective.  I took a photo of each so I could remember and compare when I was done playing.

I discovered an annoying result of where I'd placed the lace square.  I kept trying to place the little squares in a place that coincidently butted their edges up against the edge of the lace.  And it made a distracting line.  I had to either put the squares so that they overlapped that edge or were a reasonable distance away from it.

The beige border is a canvas that I cut a 12" square out of.  Well, it is supposed to be a square.  I think I need to make another one where I measure more carefully.  I wanted to frame out the actual area of the front of the completed piece and it did that very well.

For a long time I thought that I would be using some variation of the first image - the full grid.  But as I played I realized that it wasn't what I wanted.  I like the irregular arrangements better, even though the overall square format still appeals to me.  At the moment I'm leaning toward the one with the two waves.  If I do that, then I'll tint the background to create thirds of color, probably in bronze and green, to unify the image further. 

I added the basic fabric elements to this piece to set the composition, then put in just a little bit of cretan stitch at the mid-left to get the stitching started.  I honestly hadn't been expecting to add the darker and thicker row of stitches across the bottom, but it seemed like a good idea and the value contrast worked stunningly well.  I think the cretan stitch evokes the feeling of trees nicely, with it's up and down markings, but keeps a forest like continuity because of the sideways connections.  You'll be seeing more of it on this piece.  I cropped this photo to near the 12"x12" dimensions of the finished piece to give a bit of a different impression from the full view of the 18"x18" canvas I'm working on that I showed in the blog entries on painting and beginnings.

  This watercolor sketch that I had made in the Netherlands kept coming up in my brain, along with the ideas I had originally had on how I could take it further.  So I tried a couple larger sketches the other day  Since I was looking for a square piece I actually ended up grabbing a piece of scrapbook sized cardstock, 12"x12", which is also going to be the finished size of the piece.

I then began gathering materials.  I went through my shoeboxes of fancy fabric scraps and pulled out the blues and aquas and beiges.  I was looking for both good color combinations between the three landscape elements and for the right textures.  The sky needed to be smoother than the ocean, which could be solid or wavy, while the beige needed to be on the rougher-looking side.  I wanted the red to be a little shiny and bright. 

I actually found two good sets and was having trouble choosing between them, so I continued to the next step with both.  I imagined having some photographic realism as a contrast to the fabric and to the bottom layer of painted canvas, so I delved into the magazines, looking for the colors and textures that went with the fabric sets.  I think that just cutting up the magazine when I need a piece will be better for my current working style than trying to cut them up ahead of time, as I had been doing.

  I decided to start with the more muted set of colors.  The sky and beach pieces seem to be silk duipoini and the ocean is some kind of moire.  As I painted the canvas, trying to match the colors, I was surprised to see the painting turned out much brighter than I would have anticipated, though I'm not sure that's clear with the lighting on the photograph.  I was really thinking that it would be greyer.  It still might be by the time I'm done.  The beach presented a difficulty I should have expected - the fabric has metallic tones in it, which I had trouble capturing.  I'm thinking that this initial background needs a great deal more work in patterning and color before I move on.

I cut out the kite from the sketch and used it as a pattern to cut a piece of Peltex, which I then trimmed a bit to a good shape.  I wrapped the form in red satin, carefully stitching around the edges with a perle cotton.  This will be the focal point, and not just because of it's color.  I want to embroider elaborate lines horizontally across it, using different threads and adding beads as well.  I laid out the squares of fabric and the Peltex kite piece on the canvas so I could see where I was headed.