From the moment that Pamela announced the theme I knew what I was going to do. Some seven years ago I visited an textile art exhibibition in the Salisbury Art Centre which is a converted church. There are several fragments of some beautiful mosaic wall decoration left exposed in the walls. I guess it was the combination of ancient history, the mosaics and the barely legible illuminated manuscript look of these fragments that caught my imagination. I took photos but I have held those images in my head all this time - waiting for this moment?
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The mosaics are cotton fabrics fused in place including the gold which is printed solid shiny gold. I tried foiling gold to Bondaweb but decided the tesserae had to look similar, ie little layers in themselves. Over this I laid white nylon organza and light weight Lutradur, then stitched around and between each tesserae. Now the fun - I melted away the organza and Lutradur with a heat gun leaving what I hope looks like the mosaic fragments in that church.
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| Some of the actual fragments - my inspiration |
Hilary
How gutsy to go at your piece with a heat gun, after all that meticulous work. The effect is a wonderful translation of the mosaic medium into fabric. Tattered, but still luminous. May we all age as well as your fragments!
ReplyDeleteI love it Hilary - and wish I'd made it myself. I've so many photos of mosaics, but rarely seen a textile rendition of them that does the subject matter justice. Yours works in every way.
ReplyDeleteI knew one of us would get the opportunity to use this technique .... well done it is fantastic. Love it.
ReplyDeleteThat has really worked. The bright colours you've used remind us of how long tile will last if it's not damaged by man or nature. You've captured it well.
ReplyDeleteSo often textile interpretations of tesserae look very flat, but the texture you have achieved is wonderful. This works really well.
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing!! You always make me wonder how you manage to achieve "magical" results with thinking out of the box. Your techniques are "spot on"! You must have nerves of steel because I don't know if I would've been able to "slash and burn" after all of the initial work. Kudos!!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely brilliant, I love it!
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