Saturday, June 03, 2006

Japanese Iris for the Japanese Garden

I am getting things ready for the Japanese Garden show that happens in July. It has been a great venue for selling work, so I like to have a good variety of work ready, in a variety of sizes. This is when I start to think of my work in commercial terms, though I would never want to get to a point of just churning out what sells just because it does. Still, as I prepare for this show I am inevitably influenced by what has sold in the past.

I have tried to have at least one good sized piece with a flower theme. These have included a hydrangea, a foxglove, and an iris. Each of these has sold. This year I am doing a Japanese Iris, using my usual fusing technique. I start with a full-sized drawing and my assortment of fabrics. I started with the blossoms, which I fused. Before going any further I added detail and color to the blossoms to assure myself that they were actually going to look like flowers before proceeding. Then I started tracing and cutting and fusing the leaves, using several shades of solid green fabrics. The fabric I am fusing to looks black in these photos, but is, in fact, a mottled dark brown. Sometimes the pieces don't fit exactly as they did in the drawing, so I trim and adjust. With this piece I decided the leaves looked a little sparse once I had fused them all in place so I added a few more. The drawing is a guide, but not one I adhere slavishly to.

After I finished the bunch of irises, I tried them out on some different backgrounds.

Hmmmph. Blogger seems not to want to allow me to post the pictures of the different backgrounds. I will come back and try later.

3 comments:

  1. Oh you tease! I can't wait to see more pictures. I thought of your wonderful Japanese lantern when we were at the Fort Worth Japanese Gardens last week.

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  2. Loverly!! Can't wait to see it up close and personal!

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  3. All of these are stunning! Simply beautiful work. I wish I lived close enough to see your artistry in person.

    The hydrangea is my favorite.

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