A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

A second bite at the apple

Everyone's skinny little lines have really inspired me!  Aren't there some fabulous works being created?  When I posted my first attempt, I told you that I wanted to try a second piece.  I started out with this fabric that I monoprinted last month.
I added a few navy blue skinny stripes and a red-violet commercial dyed second fabric and got this.  It is 31" by 26".
I am not completely satisfied with it.  It is much more difficult to successfully incorporate two fabrics than I thought.  Any suggestions?

11 comments:

  1. is the red fabric a solid or a dye? (too small for me to tell from the photo)

    it's difficult to combine solids with surface-designed fabric. you might feel less frustrated by finding a more subtle patterned fabric.

    that said, I think this composition is rather striking. you have done a good job of building a figure out of the red, and of flipping and rearranging pieces of the blue so that you get contrasting colors across the seamlines. I think you could do something with this concept if you continue the series.

    I can't say too many times that people should not get discouraged if their first or second try at a technique isn't wonderful. if anything could be mastered immediately it wouldn't really be worth doing, would it?

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  2. The red-violet fabric is a solid and you are right, I had difficulty with the heaviness of the solid color with the delicateness of the monoprint. I had originally thought the solid would be easier to incorporate than a mottled hand dye. Now I know better.

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  3. I really like this the way it is. But then you are seeing it in person.
    Is it possible to knock the red back some in the quilting process by using something like a variagated blueish purple like the hand dye and perhaps quilting gerbera-like partial flowers similar to the images in the hand dye?
    Sandy in the UK

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  4. Sort of Mondrian-ish. I like it!

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  5. I like it -- I think that seeing it in person must be much different than seeing it IRL. Maybe some quilting in a light color on the red parts and darker thread in the light parts will even it out a bit.

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  6. I rather like the contrast between the delicacy of the monoprint and the starkness of the red. The skinny lines (being such a dark color) provide a nice contrast. Are the lines black or very dark navy? ...just curious; it is hard to tell on the computer.

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  7. I like it just the way it is. I like the contrast f the solid red and the blue print. My first reaction when I saw it was ,Wow! I think you've taken Kathy's technique and made it your own.

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  8. The lady doeth protest too much. This is Fabulous! Put a binding on it and move on.

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  9. I love the pattern you have created, but the red is reading very dull, maybe it is just the photo, try some shiva oil sticks to liven it up, Wonderful use of the lines. I can see my efforts have the lines too thick, yours are skinny!

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  10. Beautiful! I love how the red brings out the violet in the monoprinted fabric.

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  11. I love the color choices. The overall effect seems bottom heavy to my eye. Can you separate the left maybe the first three strips and reverse them? placing the red at the top?

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