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Sunday 31 May 2020

NY Art Deco - Brooklyn Doorway



Thanks for a challenge that prompted some interesting research. In the end I chose these doors as my inspiration source:

Doorway in Brooklyn | Art deco door, Art deco buildings, Art deco

I've developed an interest in Welsh wholecloth quilts,  or more specifically, the way the patterns are generated.  I took the motif from one of the doors and used it in lieu of the leaf pattern used in Welsh quilts and used the door border, as is. The design loses something in this translation but i learned a lot from the exercise.

I transferred the design to an old cotton sheet, stitched it by machine then overpainted the whole with black acrylic. 


I like the fact that the paint application isn't totally even as it reflects the fact that this doorway fell into dis-repair when the building was unoccupied. 



I've struggled to photograph this, I think the contrast between light absorbing black paint and the reflective gold thread was too much for my aging iPhone, but it glows quite nicely in natural light!


10 comments:

  1. Love the angle you have gone. Great result and very brave on my part to do all your stitching and then paint over.

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  2. Well done Linda on your choice of the doors and using the elements in a simple wholecloth. As Phil said very brave of you to paint it after doing all the stitching work, but it turned out to be a really great piece.

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  3. I can see why this door appealed if you are into Welsh quilting - it is a gift. I am in awe of your bravery to stitch it out and then paint over it! I has worked but did you know it was going to? I'm surprised the paint didn't cover the gold thread. Like you, I am often surprised at how difficult something that looks simple is to replicate. "Simples"? No, but good. Hilary

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  4. I had sampled the paint/thread thing but when it came to painting the finished piece I lost my nerve and added a couple of layers of fairly dilute paint. The result was dreadful, the coverage was patchy and the colour was quite peculiar. At that point I felt that my only option was to go with the full strength paint, though I loosened it slightly to be able to move the brush over the quilted surface. The underlying patchiness shows but I quite like this slight variation in colour.

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  5. I like the way you have adapted the design of the doors. You were brave with the paint!

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  6. This works so well Linda. You did a good job painting too - hard to get to where the thread is and get the "valleys" covered. I like your idea of using the repeat as a Welsh quilt

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  7. Linda a great exploration of ideas and possibilities. I think this would look spectacular on black velvet with a heavy wight gold thread.
    For the paint did you add a fabric medium to the acrylic? I find helps the acrylic glide more easily. Sometimes I 'wet' the dry unpainted fabric first by brushing over neat fabric medium, then paint over that with the paint/medium mixture. A fairly thin medium, such as Golden GAC500 or Berol works well for this technique. This helps stop the patchiness but can allow bleed, but in your case that wasn't an issue.
    Congrats on a great piece.

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  8. Lovely. And, I agree with Linda, how wonderful your design would look on black velvet with gold thread. It is interesting that you have used Welsh quilting with a NY art deco design and what I see is a Pacific Island motif.

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  9. When you posted a picture of that window earlier it was my impetus to go back and search for more images, so thank you. I would never have thought of using it for a Welsh quilt type design, and never had the bravery to paint over the finished piece. The end result is great, so well done!

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  10. Really lovely piece Linda and as everyone says So brave to paint it after all the stitching! Beautifully done.

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