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!
