Liturgical Art. Such a Great Phrase.
Here's my second piece of "liturgical art". I love that phrase. It feels so classy and righteous. But seriously, I really love making these pastor's stoles. There's something about the odd size and the fact that it's a wearable that make these quite interesting. Thereare two sides that need to sort of go together but don't actually touch each other, and each side is only about 4" wide and super long. It's not a proportion I've ever used in painting or textile work and it presents and interesting challenge. The goal is to make it a piece of art in some way, but that can be tricky with such a long skinny surface area to work with. Well, two long skinny surface areas, that really make up one picture, but split in half, so not exactly. I feellike I'm in a Dr. Seuss world.
My friend gave me a quick sketch of what he wanted. This is to be a special baptism stole and he wanted abstracted water swirling. He had been inspired by a design I had created for my mother's piece (coming soon). So, I shopped for an interesting assortment of blue batiks and got to work creating this little work of art. I used a lighter batik with less pattern for the background so the river would contrast more and be the focal point. I picked one that had a little pink and yellow in it as well, to add to the contrast, since all my water batiks only had blues in them. Then it was just a matter of cutting out and layering all the swirls. That's probably simplified just a touch, but that's really allI did. Layered wavy lines until it looked right. :) The cool way of describing that process is to call it "organic". Which sounds much better than "lacking a plan". I love building designs from scratch as I go, though. There are times for patterning and there are times to just roll with it and see where the batiks take you. This was the time for that. When it was finished, it needed a few bubbles to break it up and to tie the background together with the waves. The stitching helps with that, too, but I like adding the circular shapes against the wavy lines. Five thread colors for the free motion quilting and this beautiful little river was finished! I also love the back. I've been using darker batiks on the backs of my quilts lately so the stitching is very noticeable and I just love how it looks. Very happy with the way it turned out.
My really sad sketch...but it works!
I love capturing movement.
The backs are always pretty, too.
The full stole.
Adding all the details
The underside of the neck.
The neck. So many little details
