Friday, April 30, 2010
Thread Painting
I started a new Thread Painting a couple of days ago. I transferred one of my "zentangles" to a piece of muslin, backed it and started stitching. It was all right, but not really fun until I started to change things--sew over shapes in a different color etc. It made me think. I get bored with "coloring things in". I have to have the flexibility to change the piece. Otherwise, it is just a coloring book exercise in a different medium, no matter how skilled you need to be to do it. Developing my Thread Painting skills, is great, but, for me, it is not an end in itself. Personally, I need to be able to make decisions at every step in the process. The hand-stitched pieces are interesting for that very reason. I make decisions constantly about what color to use, how many different colors to strand together, what direction to stitch etc. Quilts are the same way. I don't want to make a bunch of the same blocks and sew them together. The results may be wonderful, but I find the process mind numbing. I want blocks I can arrange in an infinite number of ways--like a kaleidoscope quilt. Arranging those blocks on a design wall is like making a painting. I want the whole process to be flexible and interesting right up to completion, as the process is what I enjoy.
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2 comments:
You are so right about that! I feel exactly the same way. If I didn't feel like I were "painting with thread" I would be bored to death.
I have a starting point but I NEVER know where I am going with this. Color changes everything.
It makes me think of memory. Have you ever gone to buy a can of paint for a room and just know you have picked just the right one, by memory, to get it home and find that it isn't even close to what you thought? I guess that is why there are swatches.
Also, I realize that someone makes the decision for the dye lots of color. And I realize that the colors, even if there are 200 different spools of thread. Somehow they all work together. Somewhat. Not always because I end up with color problems all the time. But, that is exactly why I love doing this. Solving problems.
If you want to do paint by number then do it.(as in embroidery machines with already made designs)
If you want to paint intuitively then do that. This is why I do not like built in stitches. Somebody else did that.
Absolutely. What else is there but solving problems. I get myself in a lot of trouble that way, but then I have to get myself out in some creative way. I read in a book once that it was a good idea to talk to your piece and see what it wants,"Do you want a blue squatre or a yellow triangle in the right corner?" I thought that sounded like a good idea and that I should try it. The first thing the painting said to me however,was "You already do that dummy!".
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