The Bride Series - The Bride Painted

This is the last of this series of pieces - and this one is different to the other two in that it is a framed piece, rather than a 3D mask.

The inspiration came from a photo of a young South American girl, her face painted and her head part shaved, that I found on Pinterest.

I used the 'quilt as you go' method using my hand dyed fabrics to represent the painted markings on her face and the bluish shaved part of her head.  A mask shape made from painted and heat treated tyvek continued the Mask theme and a flutter of fabric leaf shapes decorated her hair.

This piece was framed to protect the fabrics.

Before it was framed - I couldn't get a decent shot after it was framed because the light kept reflecting off the glass.

The Bride 1 – Painted

Height:   85 cm

Width:    90 cm

Depth:    4 cm

Materials:             

·         Tyvek, painted with acrylic

·         Hand dyed cotton fabric

·         Cotton batting

·         Silk cord

·         Cotton threads

·         Perle embroidery threads

·         Linen threads

·         Silk threads

The Bride Series was my contribution to our first, 'real' exhibition - 'our' being my Textile Arts cohort, collectively known as Stitch Theorem.

It was a huge learning curve and the experience held us in good stead for our Graduate Exhibition - and what I'll be talking about from next week.

The Bride Series - The Bride Masked

Continuing with the theme, inspiration came from many women/girls who are masked or veiled for the ceremony - which also has comparisons to the veil worn at traditional western weddings....

Beaded, painted and adorned with precious threads and fabrics, all eyes are on her as she makes her way to her destiny.

Height:   69 cm

Width:    60 cm

Depth:    20.5 cm

Materials:             

·         Wood

·         Sun dyed cotton fabric

·         Cotton batting

·         Silk cord

·         Cotton threads

·         Perle embroidery threads

·         Linen threads

·         Silk threads

·         Steel

·         Corflute

·         Beads

·         Commercially printed fabric

·         Fencing wire

The Bride Series: The Bride Scarred

The theme for this exhibition, held at Manningham 29 January to 22 February 2014, was ADORNED.

Quite a few thoughts went through my head about how to represent Adorned...

I thought about continuing work on my felted fat lady, which had been started some time before for another exhibition, then abandoned...

..but she was again assigned to the WIP box....

...and then flitting through Pinterest, I saw some beautiful faces of young women/girls which had been decorated and adorned to either attract a mate or to meet their new spouse in marriage...and I got to thinking about how they might feel about it...whether it was with joy or trepidation...whether if it was possible, would they still choose to marry or would they choose another life for themselves if the boundaries imposed by tradition, opportunity and geography...and what the carefully crafted adornment masked...............

...and I had it - the Bride Series...

The Bride Scarred

Photo courtesy of Carol O'Loughlin

Adorned with feathers, she waits to see what will unfold, whether the pain she endured through scarification was worth it or was simply a forerunner of things to come...

Height:   118 cm

Width:    64 cm

Depth:    23 cm

Materials:             

·        Wood

·         Sun dyed cotton fabric

·         Cotton batting

·         Paper cord

·         Silk cord

·         Hessian

·         Fencing wire

·         Cotton threads

·         Perle embroidery threads

·         Linen threads

·         Silk threads

·         Corflute

·         Beads

·         Feathers

·         Commercially printed fabric

Come back next week for the next in the series....