Summer Hydrangea Done

Got the top ichimatsu and sides done for the scroll. I had to re-stretch the piece as the top was all wonky - so now the top ichimatsu was selectively repaired. I had to use some glue at the back because of the restitching. I will check again tomorrow to see how it fares.

Top:

Bottom:

Jellyfish 2.0

I tried another way to do the jellyfish body. I painted the silk gauze bright yellow, and "stuffed" the body with the folded under silk gauze. I outlined the body with stem stitch. It looks somewhat muddy, so for the final version, no painting.

The final (maybe) version. I trapped the angelina lace under the organza, to tone it down and give the water a subtle shimmer. I did not stitch the outline of the jellyfish with floss, as it made it too heavy.

I used Paint.Net to "auto-adjust" the color of the photo, it looks great - too bad it's not real! Maybe I can use that for the color scheme of the next version!

Enough jellyfish for now - I really have to get back to my Japanese embroidery, and finish up the Hydrangea.

Jellyfish Done

This is what I consider finished, but still a beta version.

For the angelina film strips at the top - I attached some with beads and some with gel medium. The gel medium is staining the background fabric and is showing through. Not a success.

For the right jellyfish - I googled the anatomy of jellyfish and there are tentacles as well as thicker "oral arms with stinging cells". The thicker arms are flair threads loosely tacked down, and the tentacles are "line of staggered diagonals" as in Japanese embroidery. The "canals" were stitched on the silk gauze "hood" before attaching the hood to the background.

For the left jellyfish - the silk gauze hood is stuffed with invisible thread, and the canals are stitched on after the hood is attached. The tentacles are single strands of floss, tacked at the top and bottom, and allowed to be floating in between.

I'm not sure which jellyfish is better, or if I should take features from both jellyfish for my next attempt...

For the heat treated angelina fibers - I made a thin lace and tacked it down using invisible thread. To construct the lace, I used double stick tape to attach the fibers at one end, and a comb to line them up before ironing.

The idea I want to convey with this piece is airiness and transparency - I think I got part way there. Onward!

Jellyfish and angelina fibers

This is a revisit of a piece I did for my EGA design class previously.

I want to make this piece more dimensional. I would "trap" angelina fibers in the jellyfish body. My first trial attempt:

It was difficult to stitch the silk gauze to form a pouch onto the background. The angelina fibers under the gauze was not showing up well.
Here's the second attempt:

I substituted the angelina fibers with some thicker shinier thread so that it'd show up better.
Details:

This is not the final version, but I'll attempt to add some angelina fibers in the water to fulfill my class requirements.
Thinking ahead to the next version, I plan on stitching the "innards" so they are not so randomly coiled, and then add the silk gauze on top. The gelatinous stuff at the base of the tentacles don't look like what I want either.

Seascape Done

I constructed an Ort fabric, intended as atmospheric hills behind the top left dark purple hills. It didn't look right, so I made another Ort fabric, lighter in color. It still didn't look right. I then used the two pieces for the green mound on the right. It looks ok, even though I stacked one on top of the other. I added some foam around the base.

The piece tells me it is done. No need for clouds in the sky, birds in the air, etc.

Details.

Trying to capture what it looks like in sunlight.

The next pieces I have to work on for the Mixed Media class are the angelina fibers and film. Then it is back onto Japanese embroidery, as the flat gold is on the way.

Seascape and orcas

This piece has developed a life of its own! It tells me whether each element works or not. The gel transfer of the orca pod didn't turn out too bad, but when placed on the piece it looks flat, and worse, cheesy. Wrong way to do it! So I padded and stitched the orcas instead.

For the foam, I deconstructed a flair thread:

The green hills are next; I have not figured out how to do it.
This piece will not contain all the required elements for the Mixed Media class, since I could not figure out a way to use them all here. I am contemplating a second piece with tyvek cliffs and gel water. Other elements of the class, such as the angelina fiber pieces will have to be stand alone elements, unless I can think of a way to use them with either piece.

On another note, my NAN submissions for this year had been judged and returned. I did not blog this piece, Northern Lights study, which got third place in the original category, so here it is.

For my other pieces, Sacred Kingfisher received 1st place, and Moth Orchid received 2nd place for the non-original category, both of which I blogged while stitching. NAN may award multiple 1st and 2nd place awards. Here are their 2014 Exemplary winners. Pat myself on the back!

Mixed Media Seascape

I grayed out the driftwood and stitched it on top of the rocks. I planned to use tyvek for the purple cliffs, but the texture just did not look right. I decided on an ort construction instead.

Detail of the distant purple hills.

Detail of the driftwood.

I am contemplating putting in a pod of orcas in the water. This depends on whether the gel transfers (which is part of the class) worked or not. Right now it is not looking good.

Embroidery with Mixed Media

I'm doing another fun project - the  EGA GCC class Embroidery with Mixed Media, by Laura Smith. I've combined this with my previous class Mark and Paint on Canvas and Fabric, also by Laura Smith, discussed in an older post waterlilies on silk. For this Mixed Media class, I've painted a seascape on linen. I've ironed on Pellon shape flex sf101 as suggested by Trish Burr in her blog. This gives additional body to the linen to support tyvek, ort fabric and other dimensional attachments. Besides which I wanted to try it to see how the shape flex works; so far it has worked very well.
The inspiration of this piece came from the first ort fabric that I constructed - it reminded me of a knoll covered with vegetation. It anchors the lower right corner of the picture. I attached a piece of shiny organza for the water, and stone beads for the shore.

After much trial and error I made an acceptable driftwood with painted tyvek.

I tried to flatten the tyvek as much as possible - it may be too dimensional sitting on top of the beads. The other option is to remove the beads and reattach them after the driftwood is in place. This is what it looks like with the driftwood on top of the rocks.