I mentioned that I sewed for two hours last evening. I have taken an idea out of a magazine and wanted to try it out. I usually work my smaller pieces in layers. For this I started with a lovely piece of pale blue shantung satin, then a layer of silver mesh, and then a piece of silk paper out of which I had cut three holes to reveal the silver mesh underneath. Sounds lovely doesn't it? Not so! It was bland and ugly. I was disappointed. I've done it again. Let the ideas in my brain take over and not spent enough time on serious designing. No wonder I'm feeling like I can't produce anything. There are so many ideas in my head and I'm so anxious to get them into fibre that I rush ahead without really thinking it through.
So I decided to try to recover what I would have normally just, literally, thrown out. What to do? And how important is it to me to produce something that could be considered fine art? I decided that I will likely never show this to anyone. so I only have to please myself. I need to produce a piece that pleases me, for my own satisfaction, so that I can get my self confidence back. So this is only for me. Okay, I auditioned fibres and beads, and found objects. I went to the colour wheel to see what I could do to give the piece some life. Complement of shaded blue? Yellow ochre. Not in this lifetime!! So we ended up with lime green, Hunter green, turquoise and teal. I'm still within an analagous colour scheme, but, oh, does that teal make it sing!! I even took a page out of my friend Dianne's book and used some rat tail! Now I'm very busy couching fibre. the design is not great, but I'm happy with what I'm producing. It has been months since I've had this feeling of pleasure with my work. When it's finished, I may just reconsider showing it to you.