While making recent Chenonceau pieces, I produced unexpected ‘ghost’ versions of the images. These came from the backing papers which were left over after the process of printing onto fabric for stitching and the cutting out and were then found in a random curled up heap to be thrown away. Fortunately, I stretched these out before they went in the bin and realised their possibilities.
I had cut out the images together with their stiffer backing papers to make the cutting easier. Sometimes this had happened while the fabric was still stuck to the carrier papers for going through the printer and sometimes once the images had been ironed on to Bondaweb.
This produced papers of different weights which I overlaid and glued onto black paper. I played also with which papers to use and how they should be layered.
I’m left enjoying the unexpected results of using up leftovers and am now adding the effects produced to the set of ideas currently playing in my mind.
I had cut out the images together with their stiffer backing papers to make the cutting easier. Sometimes this had happened while the fabric was still stuck to the carrier papers for going through the printer and sometimes once the images had been ironed on to Bondaweb.
This produced papers of different weights which I overlaid and glued onto black paper. I played also with which papers to use and how they should be layered.
Fine Bondaweb backing paper shapes
Bondaweb backing paper and heavier paper carrier for printing
Thank you, Lin. It’s surprising what unexpected things can come as a by-product of work.
ReplyDeleteThis is part of the excitement for me, the ideas that come from discards and scraps. I still have the backing papers from cutting out squiggly pieces to represent sailboat masts as reflected in rippling water - a pair of art quilts from 2014. Those shapes were just too good to toss although I haven't quite found a use for them yet. Someday . . .
ReplyDeleteI think such chance plays a great part in my attempts to create work - in a particular moment, suddenly seeing possibilities in left over papers, photos or pieces of fabric, links between images, or work by other artists that triggers a new thought. Perhaps if I’d sat down to work an hour later with other thoughts in my head - and definitely if I’d failed to go to a particular exhibition - the work might have turned out very differently ...
DeleteI do think it's harder to create in a bubble. One really must let random outside of your focus things to flit past your consciousness to help spark more innovative thoughts. I'm often left wondering how much I actually had to do with some outcomes when discoveries are made seemingly by accident!
DeleteIndeed - the-on-the-spur of the moment decisions do so often feel accidental, or certainly outside conscious control.
DeleteI've been advised that it is ok to take credit because, accidental or not, it was my artistic eye that caught it and deemed it worthy. :-)
DeleteI’ll remember that one!
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