new work and how did I do it?

Last week, in the nick of time I finished a new piece that I donated to the SAQA auction (detail above). It is one of three that I started simultaneously in a flash of inspiration. I was working on six (yes!) other pieces that I sort of got stalled on, when all of a sudden I got an idea that I needed to try out immediately. No worries, I will get back to those six and finish them, as I have already figured out how. Does anybody else work like this - many pieces in the works simultaneously? There was an informal poll done in an online group that I belong to recently, and it seems that I am in the minority, most people work on one at a time. Oh well....this seems to work well for me...

Anyhow... the idea I wanted to try out involved layers of sheers like in plenty of my other work. But this time I wanted to add paper that I had printed earlier. I figured out how to beat my printer into submission and print on 9"x12" tracing paper. OK, so I didn't really beat it, it's much too expensive for that...let's say I manipulated it. I printed an excerpt from one of my favorite poems by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin called Mednii Vsadnik/The Bronze Horseman. I manipulated the text in Photoshop this way and that to look like a collage from book pages and printed on the tracing paper. Then I cut up the paper into squares (one of my fave shapes!) and layered it with printed ExtravOrganza, chiffon, netting and printed dryer sheets. Here it is laid out on my green cutting board so it's easier to see the sheers. I put this on a layer of tear away stabilizer and machine stitched all the pieces in place. Tore it away and layered colorful scraps of vintage and not so vintage fabrics underneath to add color. Here are the three pieces pinned and the threads I was auditioning laid on top. These are silk threads of different thicknesses, to them I added variegated cotton threads. Then I pinned the whole sandwich on top of a stretched canvas. This is so that I could hand stitch it easier. It's too fragile to be put into a hoop and I really need to keep it flat so that it would not warp as I stitched. While stitching I took breaks to work in Photoshop to alter my photograph of a wrought iron fence from St. Petersburg, Russia. Several different filters later I printed it on TAP sheets. After printing, I altered the photograph some more by scratching away areas. Then I put it on top of my stitched quilt sandwich and transferred it. Here's a detail. I love how the TAP goes over all the stitching and all the layers and adds another dimension. And I added just a bit more hand stitching after the transfer.This is the finished piece - Piterskoie Kruzhevo/Питерское Кружево/St. Pete Lace. I am still stitching away on the other two pieces while visiting my parents. I have already prepared the Photoshopped images and as soon as I am home, I intend to transfer them and finish these two pieces before I head to Russia for the summer. That and unpack, do laundry, entertain my kids and husband, celebrate the 4th and pack again..... aaackkk!!!!!

PS if you would like to learn exactly how I use Photoshop, come and join me at Create in August! Follow the link on the sidebar.