January 13, 2012

A New Textile: "Wave"

Wave, hand dyed wool on linen, 10 x 13 inches.


Most of my textile work has been inspired by the minimalist strain of modernist painting, so the images are usually made up of flat shapes. Recently though, I made a work that had illusionistic form, a piece I called Draped, which you can see here. I enjoyed working on it and liked the result, so did a few sketches for future projects using volumetric forms. Instead of focusing and refining my ideas in my textiles, I seem to be expanding them, which is fun for me. I have a varied stream of themes, little rivulets each adding their droplets: drawings, figure/ground explorations, pattern, shapes, multi-part work, and now form. In Wave, I wanted to emphasize the sinuous movement, so I used the dark blue of the background to "draw" a line along the top of the flowing form. I dip dyed the wool, which I explained in the link above, to get a range of color.



As you can see in this detail, the shift from one hue to another isn't smooth, but it is still effective, I think. If I was much fussier and more precise in the dyeing process I could have made smoother transitions; for instance, by dyeing small swatches of fabric in jars that have had gradated amounts of color added to each. But I like the rougher result; I hope it has a certain energy to it.

12 comments:

  1. this is lovely.

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  2. thanks so much, birdsandbees and Howard!

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  3. Yes the range of tones is amazing to get form in this medium!!
    its great.

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  4. what a beautiful surprise this piece is.

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  5. I like the way the color moves across the piece. I didn't notice an abrupt change in hue until you pointed it out. It seems three dimensional. Can't wait to see more of this type of creation.

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  6. thanks, again, dear readers.
    I should point out that there's a tradition of very realistic rendering in rug hooking, using thinner strips of wool that are dyed in careful color transitions. I'm not interested in doing such fine work in my textiles; I leave that to the paintings.

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  7. Missed this post somehow, another beauty Altoon. Love the shape and the colors, and I'm glad you use a wider strip of wool,it gives it more body.

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  8. Thanks so much, Dona and Liz and Julie and Mona.

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