Process Day 2

I started by making my moon more moon like, by adding some rubs.

Then out with the drawings. I'm certainly getting some mileage from these.

I have a wide bondaweb that I get from Art and Stitch, ideal for backing large pieces. I gently peel the backing away from the gluey side and use this as my tracing paper.

I place this over my drawings and trace with pencil the element I want.

 I then make a sandwich with my fabric on the bottom, (in this case a synthetic florist wrap ) then a layer of bondaweb and the tracing on top. I cut everything to size to avoid wasting too many materials.

Then the most important part, parchment paper or any other non stick paper under and over the tracing. Hot iron - no steam.

Then it is ready to cut out, with a combination of scissors and scalpel. This is the most tedious part it can take up to an hour to cut a complex element out. I think there will be about a dozen parts in this piece so this part I will spread it out over the weekend.

I try to cut as elegantly as possible to capture the feeling of each plant stem. The art of pivoting the scissors to create curves takes a lot of practice and time. 

Then on to the next one ( just another ten or so to go).

I can't help but lay some of the 'stems' over my moon to see how they are going to look, a lot of cutting needs to be done before I start laying out properly. I'm using a mixture of silks, sheers, chiffon and synthetics to make up the plant life.

 I envisage the overall size being about 36" x 60" so quite a big piece of work. The decision I have yet to make is whether to use batting on the back or just another layer of black linen, I'll decide when I have everything bondawebbed in place.

I experimented with bleach discharging the background with some of my stem shapes but didn't like the colour achieved so discarded this idea.

I will post again on Monday.