Soular Power Fabric Art

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- A view of my work currently in progress in the studio -

More than Just The Sum: Northern Red Oak 2

All art quilts from the series "More Than Just The Sum" are based on images of microscopic slices of wood. Each type of wood has cells that differ functionally and visually. Some cells look long and narrow, others are more round. Different types of wood have visually different cells, and different angles of making the cut through the wood - either radial, tangential or as a cross section - yield different images of the same type of cell. Therefore, there is an amazing amount of variation in the microscopic images.

The microscopic slices are very thin so they appear two-dimensional. However, the slices originate from a three-dimensional piece of wood. In my series I try to push more and more towards the incorporation of 3-D elements into my 2-D art quilts.

"More Than Just The Sum: Northern Red Oak 2" is an attempt to combine (in fiber) the long, narrow cells with the round, tubular structures running perpendicular through the tissue.

Here is the frontal view of some of the tubular structures: the tubes are created from fabric and couched with yarn. And yes, they are all done by hand.
		This is the view from the side.

I hope that I can finish all of the tubular structures very soon. The next step will be the attachment of the tubes onto fabric and hiding the stitches under more yarn. I'll post an update when I get the first tubes attached.

10-04-2011

The tubular structures are finished!
I had intended to attach the tubes onto fabric and then build the art quilt around it. Well, that did not work out because I could not guide the fabric with the tubes attached through my domestic sewing machine. The longest tube is only 3 inches tall, but this is long enough to get stuck at the mechanism of the foot lift.
So I created the artquilt first and then I'm attaching the tubes. It means handling more bulk and working on a narrower area than with the fabric only but the outcome is worth the effort!.

10-11-2011

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Nebula NGC 2467

The image shows the stellar cluster NGC 2467 and its surrounding area, located in the Southern constellation of Puppis. The large clouds of the nebula are formed from dust and gas, mainly hydrogen. NGC 2467 is suspected to be only a few million years old and as a stellar nursery the nebula is still producing new stars. NGC 2467 and Surroundings Photo Credit: ESO (European Southern Observatory) For more information see: http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0544a/
		As a scientist I'm trained to look at facts only, but as a visual artist I have the freedom to modify aspects of an image. This way, I turn a representational, scientifically correct image into an abstract image which is no longer scientifically correct. I try to find a balance between scientific accuracy and visual appeal. In the case of NGC 2467, I was not very happy with the pink of the clouds of gas and dust. After playing with various color combinations I decided on a blue-green-purple version of the nebula.
After printing the image I taped an acetate sheet on top of the paper. I carefully traced areas of the same color or of very similar colors with a black felt pen. A note on the side: Since I start out with a digital image it would be possible to have a computer software (such as Adobe Illustrator) assign the color spaces for you. Although this approach does work with certain images, it does not work well in the case of nebulae with stars. The reason is simple: while our human brains can distingiush between the bright spots in the foreground (the stars) and the colorful background (the gas and dust clouds) and therefore, can ignore the stars for the assignment of the areas, the computer program cannot distinguish between background and foreground, it only "sees" pixels. Consequently, the assigned color areas are very different from what I create manually.
		Here is the acetate sheet with all the areas I assigned.
I scanned the acetate sheet and printed it as a black-and-white. Then I numbered all the areas to make the positioning of the templates later in the process a little easier. (The image is now upside-down compared to the original image, but that does not matter at this stage.) At a copy store I had my image enlarged to the actual size I wanted the nebula to be. I got two copies: one to prepare the templates from and one to use as a master plan.
		Now every single area gets analyzed and labeled: an edge that will overlay another edge is marked as "o" (over) and will be cut exactly at the trace line. An edge that will be underneath the adjacent piece is marked as "u" (under) and will be cut with a 1/4" extra fabric (similar to a seam allowance). And at every position I change from "o" to "u" (or vice versa) I make a mark. This process requires focus and it is time-consuming. Nevertheless, careful planning is important in cases where many individual pieces will need to fit together at the end.
I devided the drawing into two sections: Section 1 is the blue-green area (now at the bottom-left) and Section 2 is the blue-purple area (now at the top-right).
		As the next step I prepared one of the enlarged copies of my original drawing. I glued freezer paper onto the backside of my large copy with the shiny side remaining exposed (and the dull size glued to the paper). Then I glued parchment paper on the front side to prevent the copier ink to smear onto my ironing board and my fabric (guess how I know that it can smear?). Finally, I cut out all the individual pieces which will now function as little templates.
Now it's time for the fun part: selecting fabric! I chose fabrics from my stash of hand-dyed cottons and commercial batiks. Typically, I pick more fabrics than I end up using, but I have a nice palette to start with.
		Using the printed color image as a guide I select fabrics for all the individual pieces. I'm not aiming for a 100% match of the colors but more for a flow of colors throughout the entire section. The photo here shows a few of the template pieces from Section 1 assigned to green and blue-green fabrics.
And here are the template pieces from Section 2 as well as the fabric which I will use as background.
		All the little pieces of templates are ironed onto their respective fabrics. I ironed fusible web (in this case Mistyfuse) onto the backside of the fabric. Finally, every piece was cut out. I assembled the fabric pieces and ironed them together onto a piece of medium-weight stabilizer (heat only, no steam). Then I appliqued them with a satin stitch.
After I completed Section 1 I cut away the stabilizer with a very small margin to the sewing line.

Now it's time for the same procedure for Section 2.

10-04-2011

Section 2 is finished.
All the pieces are appliqued together and the stabilizer on the backside is cut away. So far, the piece lays perfectly flat.

The next step will be the moment of truth: Will section 1 and section 2 fit together without any major problems? We shall see....

10-11-2011

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© C. Hager-Braun - 2010-present
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