New Work!

I started this yesterday or maybe it was the day before - anyway, it is a fountain I saw in Boston that I took a pic of. I always liked this fountain - it is so art nouveau. I did some research and found out that it was a gift to the city for a small park (it is triangle shaped) and it just looks so perfect for the area.
It was copied from a statue in the collection of the Smithsonian Art Museum in 1930.
So, now it is mine in fabric. I plan on doing a lot more to it, but had to finish up some other work first - then I can just go forward with this, but I was so pleased on how it is starting out that I had to share :)

Been busy all week, but wanted to share this on Off The Wall Fridays!

Grackle update - FINISHED!

So the Common Grackle that I did about a year ago, and made his beak into a honking huge thing, then remade the beak and didn't like how it sat, then I cut the whole piece in half and took out the offending parts. Here it is all finished and ready to gallery mount.
Now I think it is fine - not fantastic, just fine and it is passable per my standards. In other words, I'm done and glad about it.  :)

See more cool works at Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays

Off the Wall Fridays and Material Mavens

This is a 2for - I am posting for two reasons. I usually do Off the Wall Fridays, but today is also the REVEAL day for the Material Mavens, of which I am a member too.

Every two months the Mavens have a challenge word to interpret, this reveal word was Communication.
Here's my piece:

Communication - Music

Communication – I thought what better way to communicate then with music? Music is the universal language and is understood by all. It communicates feelings and thoughts and brings them to everyone who listens. What better way to interpret communication, I asked myself.

So I started with an idea of Gregorian Chant. An old and not well known or used form of singing and the voice is the instrument of communication. There are many forms of chant, but this one I heard at an early age and enjoyed the sound. To depict chant, I put it on an interpretation of an Illuminated Page for a manuscript, and of course used the letter “C.” It could be for the word communication or my name!

Other modern musical notes were added using fabric I have had for years and of course, circles – because everything goes around and comes back to you.

See more at The Material Mavens and don't miss the pieces at Off the Wall Fridays!

Resurected work # 2

I worked on this scene and changed a couple of colors as well. I think I will do a bit more embroidery and beading and another reed to hide his tail trimming. He's not stuck down yet so I can change his position, if I want to.

Andrea asked if I could show what it was before my alteration.

I liked it then............this was before I mucked up his beak or did much sewing and made it into a huge ugly thing, so...............


I cut him out of the picture and re-adjusted his beak (sent him to the plastic surgeon) and now I will applique him back onto the piece. Of course the piece is much smaller than it was and I couldn't fix his beak as it was - AGAIN - so had a brainstorm and just trimmed him out of the section I removed from the center.
I also changed the colors of two reeds and the main color of the cat tail. Now I can at least finish it. :)

Resurrected work

I finally decided that a piece I made maybe 1 - 2 years ago was too good to waste. So I cut out the offending section. It was offensive to me - I rule my world - I declared it a good piece with a flaw, so here it is.
I am planning on putting a few more reeds and stitching it together from the back. This piece already has batting and quilting, so it will be done by hand. I think it makes a pretty good composition once I cut the bird with the HONKER beak out.

See more wonderful talent at Nina-Marie Sayres Off the Wall Fridays blog.