Journal

Here's my journal for the week, inspired by all the beautiful leaves that have fallen from the trees. It looks nothing like what I had envisioned, but I certainly learned a lot in the process.

I started by gathering leaves during a walk and photocopying them onto Extravorganza. I was surprised to discover that the leaves really didn't look too distinct and the colors were a bit faded. As a result, I placed the Extravorganza over a piece of bright yellow fabric -- to liven it up a bit. It looked great. I also placed a piece of handmade lime green paper under it; it created a background that made the leaf lines more crisp. I decided to use gel medium to adhere the Extravorganza to the fabric and paper.

Perhaps this is where I made my "mistake". The colors bled and the paper looked dull. I don't know what happened; do you? At any rate, I stitched on some wavy lines in a beautiful lime green thread and outlined a tree in a vibrant burnt sienna as a fill-in since the fabric couldn't carry the piece. Both of these got lost. I tried to darken the body of the tree with paintstiks(no success) and fabric markers (marginally better). Finally, I tried color pencils on both the paper and tree. At least this helped make things more visible. I finished it with some orange stitching with sashico thread.

I was stumped at each turn with this piece and it looks nothing like what I had originally set out to create. I had hoped to create something that expressed the richness and vibrance of all the fall colors. I'm really not sure how I feel about the end result. I think it has a sad feel to it. The colors look mushy and dull. The green paper looks too big compared to the tree I ended up stitching to use up space (a mistake, perhaps, to try to free-hand sketch a tree?). Ah well; thank heavens this is a journal.

Comments

i like this piece, i really like the simplicity of it.. how you used the thread to represent the leaves. i do wonder what happened with extravaganza? strange..
Vivien
it sounds to me like the paper beneth the extravaganza bled and altered the color of the fabric. The piece is still quite lovely though I understand not what you had envisioned...especially as the trees are so brillant now. But, the good news is you can do anothe one!