QA28_From Theme to Series

8/7/2019 QA28_From Theme to Series

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BY NATALYA AIKENS

Afew years ago I started focusing on myart much more seriously than I had in

the past, and I began to see that I had a possible

career that could both indulge my wish to be

a stay-at-home mom and provide an outlet

for my creative urges.

A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 | Q U I L T I N G A R T S M A G A Z I N E

FROM

themeTOSERIES


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One thing I knew from my previous

career permutations, though, was

that I needed to have a focus. After

spending some quality time with

my sketchbook, various art books,

artist websites and magazines, and

reviewing my earlier pieces, I

realized that I was happiest doingart that came from my heartfrom

somewhere within my Russian

soulthat was based, however

loosely, on my heritage. I decided

that I needed a theme that would

help me focus and at the same time

be flexible enough to allow me to

experiment.

I have been exploring Russian

fairytales as a theme for the pasttwo years and it has proven to be a

bottomless well of inspiration to

me. And as a bonus I can also use

the time spent reading to my girls

as creative research.

The old French fairytale Beauty

and the Beast has its Russian

counterpart in The Crimson Little

Flower by Alenkii Tzvetochek.

It is basically the same story, but

definitely not the cleaned-up,

G-rated version that everyone in the

U.S. knows. I chose the title as my

focus for this series and decided to

see how many different ways I

could interpret the crimson little

flower.

Above right (detail opposite): Crimson

Little Flower #1 16" 16" Silkorganza and muslin; layered, painted withJacquard textile and Lumiere paints,free-motion machine embroidered, handstitched, stretched on wood canvas bars.

Right: Crimson Little Flower #2 19" 19" Silk organza and tussah;

painted with Jacquard textile paint,free-motion machine embroidered,hand stitched, and stretched on wood

canvas bars.



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I decided to unify the pieces by

focusing on the flower and keeping

them in a square format. In my first

three, I indulged my fascination

with sheer and translucent effects.

I love the soft cloud-like feeling of

chiffon and the crisp lightness of

organza and I paired them with twoother fibers that are coarse by

comparison: muslin and silk tussah,

whose wonderful sheen I love.

Although my base fabrics are

delicate by nature, I am not delicate

with them. I ripped them into little

squares and rectangles and strips,

layered them with cotton batting,

and tacked them onto the base of

organza with a thick silk thread.So Crimson Little Flower #1 has

muslin pieces on an organza base,

#2 has tussah on an organza base,

and #3 has tussah pieces with some

extra strips of organza topping it off

on an organza base. I then painted

my pieces with Jacquard textile and

Lumiere paints. I think you can

readily tell which piece was created

first simply by looking at the

paintingthe flower in the firstpiece is tentative and delicate.

By the time I got to the third

painting I was bolder in my brush

strokes and used brighter colors.

I then got to one of my favorite

parts of the design process:


Above left: Crimson Little Flower #3 13" 13" Silk organza and tussah;

layered, painted with JacquardDye-na-Flow and Lumiere paint,free-motion machine embroidered, hand

stitched, stretched on wood canvas bars.

Left (detail opposite): Crimson LittleFlower #4 15" 15" Silk organza

and velvet; gold foil and dye-trappingsheet; layered, painted with Jacquardtextile paint, free-motion machineembroidered, hand stitched, attached

to a flower collage on stretched canvas,painted with acrylic.


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free-motion machine embroidery.

I use gloves (Machingers) to

get a better grip on the fabric, and

sometimes an embroidery hoop, and

then I put the pedal to the metal

and zip away at top speed.

CRIMSON LITTLE FLOWER #1I used different metallic threads to

define background areas and bring

in more texture. I then did quite an

extensive amount of hand stitching

with rayon embroidery and metallic

threads. This piece did a lot of

traveling as I worked on it during

flight time and during classes as I

waited for my kids.

CRIMSON LITTLE FLOWER #2

This piece came to life much

quicker. I had a vision in my head

and I was short on patience with

hand stitching. I played with the

effects of layering the different

weight threads on top of the sheer

fabrics.


I let the juiciness of the paint guide

my way in this piece. The paint ran

in several spots because the fabric

was too wet and I decided to make

those mistakes a design element. I

used silk and rayon embroidery

threads and changed my stitching

depending on the color and fabric

layer changes in the piece.

In figuring out how to finish these

three pieces, I wanted to make sure

that the translucency of them would

not be lost. I stretched the quilts on

canvas stretcher bars that I had

lightly white-washed and covered in

tulle. Then I covered the backs with

more organza, adding labels printedon ExtravOrganza, and I covered

the staples with lace ribbon for a

little bit of a lingerie effect.


When I got to Crimson Little

Flower #4, I was ready to

experiment with mixed media.

I have been hoarding chocolate

wrappers, dryer sheets, and other

odd bits of paper and plastic with



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a plan of using them someday. I

layered and painted silk velvet,

chiffon, and a dye-trapping sheet,

and then machine embroidered this

heavily. Using my embroidery

scissors, I cut out little circles and

half-moons in the different layers

of fabric to show off the differenttextures. Then I decided to allow

the world in on a little secret: I am a

closet chocoholic. Thats the reason

there are so many gold foil wrappers

in my stash. I layered the wrappers

with silk organza to tone down the

gold and then stitched little circles

(one of my favorite motifs) in a

hand-dyed, variegated cotton

thread.


I wanted to add a three-dimensional

effect to the flower. I made the

center and each petal separately,

using dryer sheets that were painted

and then hand stitched with

embroidery floss. I also used dryer

lint that I saved from my girls

colorful sweaters as the batting in

the organza petals, which I then

machine embroidered and hand

stitched. Finally the gold chocolate

wrappers, layered with organza,

came into play again.

I wanted to display these last two

flowers on a background of real

flowers. I went through pictures of


Above left (detail opposite): Crimson Little

Flower #5 15" 15" Silk organza;

gold foil, dryer sheets, dryer lint; layered,free-motion machine embroidered, handstitched, attached to a flower collage on

stretched canvas, painted with acrylic.

Left: Crimson Little Flower #6

12" 12" Silk tussah; silk thread;painted with Jacquard Lumiere andDye-na-flow paints, free-motion machineembroidered This particular quilt was

made to benefit the Studio Art QuiltAssociates (S.A.Q.A.) auction.


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flowers that I had ripped out of

magazines and seed catalogues, cut

them out, and layered them in a

collage on a stretched canvas using

Modge-Podge. But when I put my

flowers on top of them, the effect

was much too jarring to the eye.

I decided instead to paint over thecollage in two different tones of red

acrylic paint and let the real flowers

be ghost-like in the background.

I attached my flowers to the canvas

using cotton embroidery floss.

Now I have a series started, and

my head is swimming with ideas

of how I want to make my next

bunch of flowers. The problem now

is to decide which idea to use first,which effect I want to achieve, and

how many more chocolates do I

need to eat in order to replenish

my stash

tipsF O R I N SP I RI N G A S E RI E STry focusing on a single subject or a single imagea flower (real or imagined), a

snowflake, a leaf, a tree, or a twig. It doesnt have to be representational either; look at

the pattern made by a crack in the sidewalk, a wisp of a cloud in the sky, the texture of

lichen on a rock, bark on the tree, rust on an old can, a ripple in the lake. I carry my

camera with me everywhere and take pictures of obscure corners of buildings and

patterns in the grass, wood chips at the playground, etc., because someday one ofthose will inspire an image or a texture that I might want to experiment with.

See how many different ways you can interpret the image that you decided on. Can you

paint it on a piece of muslin and then stitch it? Can you piece it in a quilt block? Can you

use colorful bits of paper that you rip and then glue and stitch onto fabric? Can you use

objects to stamp on a surface to achieve the effect you are looking for?

Interpret the image in different colors. Try making it in blue, in red, in yellow, in green, in

purple, in magenta. Make it five times in five different shades of orange. Pick two colors

to make it in, and then make it in yellow/purple, and then in green/black, and then in

red/violet. Or take the color out; make it all white or all black, see how many different

shades of gray you can use in one image, make it all sepia-toned like an old photograph.

Choose a size thats easy for you to work with. Maybe it can be a postcard series thatseasy to carry around in a resealable bag and can be worked on anywhere you are. Or

choose a larger size so you can spread out and exercise that creative muscle. And if you

decide to make the series using a different size for each piece, you can always unify it by

choosing to display it all the same way.


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QA28_From Theme to Series