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Saturday 5 September 2020

Mies Van der Rohe

   I didn’t enjoy this challenge as I am not a fan of modern architecture. It is  too cold, bleak and clinical for my taste. All I could see were the straight lines disappearing into the distance (I wish I’d found that staircase!), so I tried to do something with those. Like Rosemary I liked the view of the buildings when looking up, and decided to use that in an abstract quilt. My original design was similar to Rosemary’s, but it was in plain colours: blue to represent the sky and I decided on an orange to represent the building. It was really boring as there was nothing to hold the interest, the lines just leading the eye off the quilt. Finally I decided to make four ‘buildings’ leading into the centre of the quilt, changing the colours around as the orange was a bit too overwhelming. I hand dyed some ombré fabrics, which took two attempts to get something that I could use. The blue fabric could have done with being a bit darker at the centre. I experimented with using inktense to darken it on some scraps, but it was too patchy, and when I tried using Markal with a stencil brush, the colour didn’t really go, so in the end I left it as it was as I was worried about ruining it. I hated it, and felt that I’d just made a glorified quilt block! However, once I’d quilted in the black lines, I decided it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. It hasn’t photographed very well, the blue looking a uniform colour however I photograph it. The only way that you can see a difference is in the black and white photo.





4 comments:

  1. Jinnie, you may not have liked the subject, but the end result is a novel and captivating take/perspective on modern architecture in towns and cities today. And don't worry, the blue and orange shading is very clear and effective on my monitor screen. Hilary

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  2. You have the perspective of the leaning in buildings spot on. Enlarged it really draws you in.

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  3. A very interesting piece with the perspective taking the eye immediately to the centre. This was achieved both by the contrasting fabrics and the lines of thread . An excellent design Jinnie

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  4. Well done Jinnie. I felt exactly the same - way too clinical for me! But you achieved a very interesting result and the photo looks as though it could be worked in shades of grey and that would be a challenge in itself.

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