Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Seahorse

Over the course of the last week, I've been musing about the seahorse Gelli print piece to which I had thread painted and added some curved piecing. I mentioned in the post that I wasn't sure about the final borders, regretting that I hadn't added them using the curved piecing method.
You can see it here with the first borders before the final ones.

This morning while I was cleaning a few photos off the I Pad, I came across the piece before any borders and my first thought was, 'oh that's pretty'.

Then I had to ask myself what had happened to cause my present unease with it. I believe I'm still being influenced by a comment from a judge on one of my past pieces. She may have been right, or not, but the quilt did go on to have acclaim and it remains one of my favourites.
However, the comment still influences my work, sometimes constructively, it her times negatively. I think that's what happened here. That little voice was pushing my fingers to the darker fabrics while my own instincts were saying no.
And thank you Sue for getting me thinking.
I decided to take all the pieced borders off and redo it. (very carefully, I might add)

Now, I'm happier with it. The colors, though having less contrast, are 'sunnier' reminding me of sunlit waters.
I have laid out the final borders here, but they will be added with curves. Maybe there will be a small mauve strip matching the one at the top that I will put in on the bottom right first.

The blue will be thinner once the seams are added and the quilting and thread painting will tie it all together, as will the final hand embroidery. That's my hope anyway!

4 comments:

Verna G said...

Really like your second effort. I found the bright red on the other a little overwhelming. This is a little gentler.

Watercolour and Textile Artist, Eileen Gidman said...

Very interesting to hear about your process Holly. I think your thoughts about a little mauve to the bottom right before the outside borders is a great idea. It will keep the diagonal flow of the mauve throughout the piece.

Juanita said...

I am often influenced by judges' comments but less so since the time I had a piece juried and the individual judges had totally opposite comments about the same piece:)))

What Comes Next? said...

I like your re-do - while the original was okay, you're right that this one is "sunnier".
Judges comments can be interesting things - if they get us thinking about what we are doing, they have served an excellent purpose, as sometimes we get so caught up in our vision of a piece, that we don't always see what someone else might pick up on. Granted, I don't always agree with them after reflecting on their comments!