Buttons&Beads&Quilts!

This piece, “Undersea Garden – Green”, is a small art quilt, (13.5″W x 13.5″T or 34.5 cm W x 34.5 cm T), and was composed at the same time as the previous posting, “Undersea Garden – Blue”. Many of the same design elements were used in this work, such as the big, mottled blue and black circle.There are a number of mother-of-pearl Akuya shell buttons on this piece. Several of the same white plastic snowflake beads have been utilized, with each of the petals outlined with blue embroidery floss. It’s tiny little details like having the embroidery thread pick up colors elsewhere in the piece that are surprises that I like to have for the astute viewer.

There are several large clear plastic buttons that have a white flower-like spray in them. (see the bottom center of the detail photo below) Such buttons could be an unfolding sea anemone whose tentacles are reaching out for food, or the transparent umbrella of a jellyfish with its more translucent organs floating underneath. While larger jellyfish can give quite a sting if their tentacles brush across your skin, they are delicate and graceful as they pulse up and down through the water. I love to watch them when I’m safely in a boat, so I added some buttons to simulate them for this creation.

This piece had more leaves included in it, as if it were a garden on land. I had a green, enameled maple leaf pin that begged to be included (see bottom middle edge of top picture). While such a leaf would not really be in an undersea garden, I  used artistic license and included it because the color fit. There are also some green glass leaves, (seen in the lower right and upper middle edge of the detail photo) that wanted to be added. I used some green embroidery floss throughout to create the effect of sea weed, although it would also be a great motif for bracket ferns if I were doing a land based garden piece.

As an artist, I delight in the choices that make as I create my art quilts. Using just the right color of thread to pick up a particular shade in a button, or using a contrasting bead to highlight the design elements next to it gives me a great deal of pleasure. I imagine that many would just walk  by my work and not notice the attention to detail that I lavish on even the smallest works, but I have watched people gaze at my pieces in an exhibition for quite a long time. There’s a lot of intuitive thought processes going on when I craft my art quilts, to be quietly found by those who will take the time to look. Often, as in this piece, Nature is my guide, and there is much in the outside world to be experienced, too. All that my pieces do is to just capture a moment in time when my vision intersected with that of what is around me.It’s up to the viewer to decide if the effort was successful.

Have you had that perfect moment in time when your senses collaborated with your environment to create the “perfect” recording of that experience? If so, why not share with us your story, as each telling gives the rest of us suggestions as to where to find our own.

To see more of my art work, please visit my web site at… www.fiberfantasies.com