Two New Textiles: "Cherry Ribbon" & "Chartreuse Ribbon"

Cherry Ribbon and Chartreuse Ribbon

My two most recent paintings were inspired by the drawing studies for these textiles, which you can see at this blog post. Not only was I excited about making paintings based on these ideas, I was excited about the textiles too. I've enjoyed making shaped pieces––you can see two recent works here––but haven't done anything quite this sinuously complex. 

Cherry Ribbon, hand dyed wool on linen, 16 x 9 in.

I like playing with illusion, as imperfect as my attempts are. 

Chartreuse Ribbon,  22 1/2  x 8 1/2 in.

I also want the forms to be interesting, to hold the space around them in an energetic way.

Making these illusionistic pieces is a good deal more complicated than textiles with flat shapes. I dip dye a long piece of wool, gradually adding more and more of it to the dye bath so that one end is dark and it lightens gradually toward the other end. I then cut the wool apart into its graduated values, labeling each one, from 1 to 7. Being organized really helps the work along. The small hand-cranked machine you see clamped to the table is my wool cutting tool; it cuts the wool into narrow strips for hooking. 

I put some recent pieces up on my studio wall to see how they felt about each other; not bad, I think.