Sunday, September 18, 2011

Background work...


When I delivered my 2 latest works to the framers last week I made a last-minute-decision that I didn't like the background of smaller of the two pieces (the one pictured in my previous post) and so I left the work but promised that I would deliver a new background.

The problem (as I see it) was that the old background was a bit "dull"... it didn't have any spark or life to it and made the piece look a bit flat.  Being a silhouette, it works really well if there's a good contrast between the background and the black trees - which this one lacked.

And so I have returned to my original idea of silk paper (originally abandoned when my silk-dyeing efforts failed last weekend and I was impatient to get the two pieces to the framer).

After searching the city last week for silk tops (unsuccessfully), this morning I took a trip over to Zart Art and found some colours that would work.  I am also looking at purchasing some un-dyed silk tops so that I can colour them myself, but I was keen to get started.

Ingredients:  Silk fibres (Tussah Silk tops), Spray bottle with water/detergent mixture, Textile Medium, Tulle netting and kitty litter tray
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Laying out the fibres
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Ready to wet and apply Textile Medium
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Hanging out to dry after being saturated with Textile Medium
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Results to come tomorrow after it's dried and pressed...

2 comments:

Lex and Judy said...

Colours look amazing.

Sophie said...

Yeah.... I'm thinking that this will give the contrast and "spark" that I'm looking for! 