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Saturday 18 December 2010

Movie Director Challange

South Africa was invited to join France and Japan in a Challenge, the theme being 'Movie Director's'. 30 people from each country were invited and then 5 Movie Directors from each country and 15 other's were chosen as the 'theme' directors. One person from each country was allocated the same movie director and had to create a 50cm x 50cm piece. Result - 90 quilts, 3 quilts on each Movie Director. My director was Alain Resnais who I knew nothing about. Turned out one of his more famous films was Hiroshima my love ( Hiroshima mon amour) which I thought was quite apt in linking the three countries together..... Japanese theme, French Director and SA Maker! The background is a whole cloth which I screen printed. Alain's face is a piece of handmade silk paper, machine embroidered and painted. the 'Dome' is applique and then stitched and painted. The quilting is 'pebbles' or 'pearls' .....not sure what it is called, representing the millions of broken pieces after the attack, buildings and people!

What annoys me horribly but I have to work thru it as it cannot be changed is the slant of the writing. I used freezer paper cut outs to stencil and thought I had it perfect , aggravated with the quilting and the slant of the building .... ouch!

Great fun and a little daunting as I have never participated in anything as big as this.

The first showing of the Challenge was at the IQW2010 Show in Japan and it won Best Group Exhibition. It now travels in Japan, then France plus other countries and we in SA only get to see the whole exhibit ( although we do have pics) sometime in 2011 or 2012.

12 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this very interesting piece! Great techniques - I especially love how the Dome looks 3-D. Congratulations! For me, the slanting of the title and the Dome gives it the feel of chaos.

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  2. What an interesting challenge, Phil! I like the diagonal slash of red, which unites the different elements. The building is beautifully done too. Have you ever tried TAP (Transfer Artist Paper)? It's one of my favourite ways to get text onto a piece. Another approach I like is to print the text onto rice paper, then apply it with matte medium. (You tape the rice paper to a piece of printer paper to carry it through the printer. It's very strong and absorbent, so the ink doesn't bleed when the medium is applied.) Might have allowed you better control of the letter placement.

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  3. Well done, Phil. It's a very dramatic and poignant piece - the red really makes it so. We've been playing a lot with Heather's methods of applying print to fabric. She's very successful with them!

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  4. What a great piece, and what a fascinating challenge! I particularly like the face, the way he seems to be staring into the future. Also the building is extremely effective, and, as Heather said, the red unites them beautifully.

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  5. Well done - you pulled it off beautifully. Very strong and full of meaning. So much content and so skillfully done. Hilary

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  6. Thanks all. Regarding the rice paper ....when you wrote about it Heather, I immediately went out and bought some.I could only get quite thick paper and I did not have much success. In the drying process it shrunk and pealed off. What weight rice paper do you use and what is your printer, deskjet, laser ?

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  7. I'm sorry your experiment wasn't a success. The rice paper I use is quite thin. Can't get my hands on it right now, as my studio is being moved, but I'm not sure whether or not a weight is indicated on the label. My printer is an inkjet, but I imagine laser would work as well. Does anyone else have specs for the rice paper?

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  8. i have never used rice paper. i use tissue paper which i glue onto paper with a glue stick. the words printed onto the glued area are sometimes lost as when one removes the tissue paper from the other one, it does tear a bit where the glue was. i love the tissue paper as it completely disappears when one uses a gel medium to get it onto fabric and other surfaces. i use an ink jet printer. hope this is of some help phil

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  9. The only thing I could add to Pam's comment is that the rice paper is less transparent than the tissue. Would love to know how your further experiments go, Phil.

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  10. Thank you all for your help. Problem! My rice paper is definately far too thick. Will need to source something thinner.

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  11. Love this discussion!! I can't wait to experiment and try these techniques. This is one of the many benefits of being part of a talented and generous group.

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  12. The latest Quilting Arts mag has an article on digital imagery on fabric. It may be of some help to you.

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