Focus on Texture

My focus this week was to highlight texture, both physical texture through my beads, and visual texture through color and contrast. It seemed only natural to choose a Gerhard Richter painting as my inspiration point, so I turned to this wintry forest scene, one of my favorites.

I already had pearls, crystals, daggers, wood and glass beads in the painting’s color palette.

A visit to a ribbon store produced the rosy cream-colored crystal and fiber shapes, which I discovered nestled in a display case with a collection of vintage buttons. The store owner explained that they were intended to be used as appliques to upcycle jean jackets.  I thought their six sides suggested snowflakes and knew I had found the perfect answer to my search for some softer texture.

My snowflakes were whisper light and would need some reinforcement before I could use them in my focal. In the photo below, the top snowflake shows the original back view of the appliques, two of which I backed in Lacy’s Stiff Stuff and upholstery-weight ultrasuede. I stitched the third snowflake to a starburst shape constructed with the daggers and right-angle weave.

A rivoli in the same shade as the snowflakes’ crystals connects the focal elements, which I hung from two strands of pearls in the painting’s darkest and lightest browns.  

 

It was so much fun working with texture. Up next week: Proportion!