The Lou Ruvi Center

I was very dubious about this challenge when it was first announced, but as soon as I started looking at images I got quite excited. It is a branch of arcitecture I had always been fascinated by, but never known what it was called. My first thought was to use the building featured on the latest series of a British TV show, Grand Designs, where a private individual had a house designed and built which looked more like a museum than a home. Like most deconstuctive artitecture it was a building you loved or hated. Then I found a picture of the Lou Ruvi Center and changed my mind.

I loved the curves and windows on this building, and I knew I had some fabric that was perfect for it's metal sides. My problem, from a construction point of view, was that the fabric frays extremely badly which is not ideal for raw edge applique, especially on a synthetic fabric where you can't use a really hot iron on the fusing layer. I solved this by using a new technique (to me) of cutting the Steam-a-Seam to the exact shape before fusing it on the first layer, then leaving a small seam allowance when cutting out and folding this back over the edges, using the inherent stickiness of the layer to hold it together before fusing it over the backgroup and windows - a sort of turned-edge reverse applique using a fusible layer. It was fiddly, made worse by my hestitancy to iron on the Steam-a-Seam at too hot a temperture due to the fabric having a tendency to shrink, but on the whole I was pleased with it, and will experiment further. My only regret is that I haven't pushed the design further away from the original building - but that is something I still find incredibly difficult. As soon as I start working on a piece like this the engineer in me takes precedent over the artist and I want to create something that is true to the original, and satisfies basic rules of construction.