Last week I finally sent off the final piece from the Complex Cloth Round Robin started last year. I ended up holding this piece for an extra two weeks as I had no idea of what to do with it. It was very monochromatic and had lots of things going on in the background, no clear ideas about color came to me. I figured the only way to go forward was to be BOLD. The photo above shows the fabric as it came to me...
I jumped right in and began by cutting stencils and using DeColorant discharge paste to get rid of some of the muddy color in the center of the piece. After washing I went back into the discharged spots with SetaSilk paint mixed with Pebeo's special thickener. One thing I should mention, the thickener has a jell-like consistency and tended to evaporate very quickly making a yucky clumpy mess in my mixing cup. I wonder if it is just sanitary hand cleaner jell in a jar, because it behaves quite the same, as I've used that with SetaSilk in the past to thicken it. After the SetaSilk I moved onto several colors of Jacquard Lumiere Metallics in Citrine, Russet, Burnt Orange, Copper, Gold, Bronze, etc.
After several trips to the design wall, adding more here and there, I decided it needed a shadow focal point, so I cut more stencils of seeds and pods and then stenciled them sparingly with Red and Gold Lumiere.
By this time we were nearing the end of the month, and I was feeling the uncertainly of whether to keep going with it or call it finished -- I am the last person to add to the cloth before it goes to its owner.
I decided that instead of going too far, I would stop and send it on to Jill and let her decide if it needed more. I heard from her last week and she is delighted with the fabric. I am so glad! Now I'm waiting to see what she ends up doing with it!
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