How To... FRUIT DES BOIS

"Fruits of the Woods" or berries in the wild. I wanted to convey the juiciness of any and all red berries, whether strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, red currents, or what have you. I did this piece first and loved it so much that I continued the process and created the grapefruit and oranges piece.

I started with a piece of solid red velvet, and using my trusty colour wheel picked threads to enrich and enhance. But first I added more layers of colour to the fabric with the Deka Iron On Transfer Paints, darkening some areas and lightening others.


Then the stitching. This piece is much larger that the citrus one, over twice its size. Again, over 20 hours of stitching were involved in its completion.


Detail of stitching and colour blending...


The final piece mounted on a richly painted canvas and again wrapped around to the back so that the sides emphasize the softness, roundness, plumpness and berriness.


Again, I love these velvet pieces!! They are crying out for touch...

How To... PAMPLEMOUSSE ET AMIS

"Grapefruit and friends" - the working title for this piece was originally "Citrus" as it includes oranges, lemons, blood oranges and grapefruit but I do love the French version of it above.

Starting with a multi-coloured piece of velvet in pale pinks and oranges, I added even more layers of depth by using DEKA Iron On Heat Transfer Paints over top. These are powders that you reconstitute and paint onto paper, then iron onto synthetic fabrics - one of the few ways of adding colour to synthetics.

I deepened the colour by adding yellows and reds. I then picked out a variety of machine embroidery threads with which I would add the stitched details.


I added the outlines of the fruit, adding layers of colours for the outer skins and for the pith interiors.


Then outlines of leaves were added between the fruits and the majority of the stitching started, filling in all of the exterior spaces with nine different shades of blues, all overstitched to blend the colours and build the richness...




One hour of sitting at a sewing machine without a break staring and concentrating on a surface 12" from your nose is very intense. This piece took over 20 hours of stitching and is just sooo wonderfully tactile - you just have to touch the softness of the velvet versus the stiffness of the dense layers of machine stitching.




I was at a quandry thinking of how to finish it. I wanted it to be touched to be appreciated. I was thinking that a cuff would be wonderful - worn against your skin and yet seen from different angles to see how the velvet puffs out from the dense stitches. Nancy Dormer and I were brainstorming and I happened to notice an empty canvas she had laying on the ground. When I picked it up it clicked - I could wrap the piece around it and still have all the benefits that a cuff would have. An edge to view it around; the softness and dimension of the velvet still available for the touch; and yet a vehicle that could be mounted on the wall or left freestanding on a shelf. It was the perfect solution!


I did two pieces using this same technique and absolutely love them both. They are the richest in colours and lushness; and are both so tactile that they scream out "touch me! touch me!"