There was an amazing strip of delicate ice lace by our front door. I tried to photograph it in place....but couldn't get the right angle. When I tried to pick it up....it broke in half.
But I'm thinking of this as a glass half full moment rather than half empty....and marveling at how beautiful this tiny chunk of ice was with the morning sun as the backdrop.
Fusing 101 lesson #6: Motifs...finally!
You can construct motifs on release paper from small pieces of pre-fused fabric overlapping and fusing the pieces and parts. Once you're done...you can peel off the motif as one unit and fuse it to something else.
Here I fused two strips together....
peeled it off the paper and cut it into a leaf.
I keep referring back to my year of
Folt Bolt projects....because every single project was mostly fused.
The September seed pod inspired piece had several motifs....and it started with a pile of pre-fused fabrics.
The plant pot is made from individual strips of hand dyed fabric assembled on release paper. And the snake plant leaves and lotus pod motifs were preassembled with a combination of hand dyed and batik fabrics.
There weren't a lot of process photos for that project...so I decided to construct a quick fused motif this afternoon...and make a tag. It's been a while since I've made a tag....and I do love this little ringed gallery of quick little art pieces using whatever I have on hand at the moment.
With the latest tag beside me for color inspiration and flow....I created a fused fabric motif of a pinwheel design.
I was determined to just pull from my vast supply of small scraps...and started with one triangle. I didn't want to overthink it....I just added one triangle at a time using a variety of colors and fabrics.
I kept adding.....
....and adding....
...until I worked my way around the circle.
Once it was cool....I could peel it off the release paper and as one whole unit/motif. Rather than cutting it round...I left the uneven ends.
Although I auditioned a couple of centers....I ended up not loving my choice.
In hindsight I should have paid more attention to how the the center came together so I wouldn't have needed one at all.
I was able to peel the purple off....but then I really had to cover up the mess I made.
As I take in post after post here on your blog, MaryAnn, I have to point out that your creative cup is not half full—it is overflowing, like, say, Victoria Falls level overflowing!
ReplyDeleteThese fused motifs are fabulous! Loved watching your pinwheel come together, with its striking uneven edges. Your second choice for a center works well by drawing the eye to the three white-background triangles with black markings. [A thought: I'm wondering if a smaller center would be more to scale. If I'm remembering an earlier lesson correctly, if you applied heat to the center you could remove it, yes?, and then perhaps try a center of maybe half the diameter if you were so inclined?][Unsolicited idea acknowledged.] Your pinwheel tag is brilliant! The white dots provide definition to the pinwheel edges; your placement of the pinwheel, bleeding off the edge of the tag, delights the brain by asking the imagination to do some of the work of 'seeing' the whole shape; the background color provides context, cohesion, and depth along with contrast to the busy-ness of the pinwheel; and the vertical lines bring balance to the composition. Not bad for a quick fused motif. Not bad AT ALL!
Thanks for all the feedback Dotty! Now I feel like I've gone to Dotty school!
DeleteI was able to peel off the first center because it was commercial fabric...so the glue bond was not as strong. But it made a mess of the center and I had to apply another that was at least as big. I can see that smaller would have been more to scale. No center at all would have been even better.
But since my main goal was to demonstrate motifs....I'm calling it a win. Thanks for all the wonderful feedback!
TOTAL win! That ring of tags is SUCH a treasure trove!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think so!
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