Once again we're back in the realms of (and please excuse the pretension!) Art, with a design based on Tom Phillips' abstract work Concerto Grosso. I liked this painting a lot, but it took me a while before I “saw” anything in it. Eventually it struck me that it looked like a galaxy suspended in space, with all the complexities of constellations and planets inside it
Tom Phillips' abstract Concerto Grosso
So I invented a “Horse Constellation” along the same lines, with a complicated, abstract interior that shaded into a dark background. It was one of those designs that was totally impossible to predict. It might work out or it might not, but there was absolutely no way you could tell what it was going to be like until the stitchout was finished, because so much depended on the unpredictable interplay of thread colours with the background and the applique fabric. More than once I changed my mind in the middle of stitching a colour, and went back with another colour and stitched over the first.
Constellation
It isn’t entirely a success but next time I will have a better idea of what to do. One thing that you can’t see on the scan – the horse is finished off with a very thin outline of opalescent Sulky “sliver metallic” thread, which turned out to be a surprising success (and that's really the way it's spelled – it's "sliver" and not "silver"). I’ve begun to use a lot of opalescent and shimmery threads recently, and I do like the glints of shine they give. I might add a bit more of this next time I stitch it out
Now, I know that I seem to be going far off into left field with all these strange designs, but I do like to see how far machine embroidery can be “pushed”. These unconventional designs are very good ways to develop interesting effects to use in designs of more conventional subjects
And if you’re interested in how I got those odd circles in the painted background, I just stamped the open ends of the tubes of green and blue paint onto the blue background. Easy!
Hi Mia, A fantastic piece of artwork! Love the sliver threads emanating from and outlining your horse constellation. Like a star in the sky it gives off the appearance of a glow of light emanating and surrounding the horse. Thank you for telling us how you achieved the painted background of your fabric.
Very nice. I am excited to see what you do next. Thanks for the inspiration, as always you make me want to create. And you are right, it IS art, very defintely.
Mia, love your Horse constellation. It does appear as a constellation in the sky. You are very inspiring in the combining of mixed media.
I love the way the circles and part circles look like planets in the background. And I also love the shaggy look of the overstitching outside the horse’s body. Brilliant!
I love it
Mia,
I love your horse constellation art project…it is so cool, sleek and exciting…can’t say that about his painting.
Hello Mia
I love your horse constellation
This new type of embroidery is very interesting
Thanks
Mia, great job, love your horse using the sliver. When I first looked at Tom Phillips’ art, I thought you had pained another beautiful piece of fabric then had sewn thread scraps and bird nests to the fabric. I tried to figure how you did this and then read your blog. Wow, how different each of our minds interpret art. Thanks again for a great blog post. Deena