Alchemy of a New Idea

I love the alchemy that takes place when a new idea unfolds. A few weeks ago while making the upteenth “Wild Thing” that uses cotton fabric, I came across several scraps of gorgeous quilting cotton that someone had given to me a couple of years ago.

As each piece came to light I kept thinking I should probably “save” them for something else, especially as they were small pieces and would require sewing together before using on the Wild Things, and time was of the essence.

Later that evening I pieced together some of the cottons into landscapes and was quite pleased with the result. I felt they needed more life, and I knew that hand embroidery and beads would provide some of that, but not quite all that I had in mind. Besides, I had two weeks to come up with some new pieces for a Fibre show and again, the clock was ticking.

Silk would provide more luminosity. I grabbed a basket of distressed silk leftover from my last batch of West Coast Reflections with the intention of adding some to the scenes. And then the playing began... Several hours and half a dozen pieces later I had exactly what I knew I was looking for 

And then the metallic pens came out… and other fibres… and other mediums…

What emerged was a whole new series called “Glimpses” ~ tiny land and sea scapes reminiscent of the West Coast.

I’m thinking of painting more silk fabric to use, distressing fabric in different ways, enhancing with gold or silver leaf… because who knows where else this may take me?

Tony, my partner captured their essence in these words:

“You look at them and you know that whether it was in a blink of an eye,

or a moment in time, a certain light,

or simply in your dreams, you have seen this.

You've been there.”