This month Leslie Tucker Jenison chose Urban Surfaces as her inspiration for a custom fabric collection. You can win this collection by hopping over to The Printed Fabric Bee blog to leave a comment. The winner will be chosen on October 15th!
After much deliberation I decided to create a piece that pays homage to the surfaces we walk on. No one pays much attention to the urban ground yet it's the basis for everything... building footprints, parks, a way to get from A to Z! On a trip to DC I remember paying close attention to the brickwork in some of the older neighborhoods. Brick patterns were incorporated into the sidewalks, driveways and walls. Sometimes you caught a glimpse of old bricks through broken spaces in the more modern concrete revealing the past.
So... how to take the image in my head and get it onto fabric! I started by painting a piece of cotton with a combination of brick-like colors. Next I cut out sponges in brick shapes. Using soy wax I applied the wax across the surface creating what I hoped was a brick pattern. A "mortar" color was added and when the wax resist was removed... voila - a brick walkway!
I fussed around here and there by sponging some dirt and slime colored paint to help the bricks look old and worn. However, it didn't quite scream urban surface... it was too tame/clean.
I took freezer paper and ripped it into random shapes and adhered to the cloth. Using thickened dyes I rolled more "dirt" colors across the surface to break up the design. I couldn't quite figure out how to add a wad of gum - next time!
Lastly, I took children's shoes and treating them like a stamp created dirty footprints across the bricks.
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| Here are just some of the tools used to create the fabric! |
To win your own custom fabric collection simply hop over to The Printed Fabric Bee blog and leave a comment. Leslie will choose a winner on October 15th... are you feeling lucky?!
Check out the rest of the artists approach to Urban Surfaces:
You were so brave to mess up your beautiful bricks. I would have stopped there, but your final version is fabulous and much more realistic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norma! Sometimes it's hard to keep going but the "what if" pushes me forward!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! So many layers...and you make it look so easy! Love the result.
ReplyDelete