2010, 8 x 8 inches

Materials: cotton fabrics, hand dyed and commercially printed

Techniques:  shibori dyed cotton, raw edge applique, hand-embroidery

I started this piece with the idea of making something a bit more abstract than it turned out to be.  The shibori fabric that makes the water was an experiment.  I didn’t want to get my whole dye kit set up, so I dyed it on the patio table using a textile paint.  It’s a magical process called “sunpainting” and works very much like blueprint /sunprint paper you can buy.  Paint the fabric, cover part of it with something that blocks the light and the shadowed parts of the fabric will stay lighter, the parts in the sun will get dark.  I wrapped my drippy painted fabric around a PVC pipe, scrunched it together and set it in the sun.  Every little while I unrolled a bit of the fabric as it started to dry, so the inside layers would get the sunprinting treatment.  At the end, gorgeous ripply watery looking fabric.

This was created for a specific exhibit with the 8×8 inch size specified.  Working small like this made me think of a macro camera lens and capturing only part of a scene, so I went looking for something with interesting feet that could be wading in my newly dyed water.  An egret with yellow toes seemed to fit the scene just perfectly.  The rest of the scene was assembled by cutting and layering the fabrics, stitching the edges and adding a little shading and shadows with a colored pencil.  Last I embroidered her dainty toenails.

This was donated to an auction to benefit the Dahl Art Center galleries in Rapid City SD, where I grew up.  The artists were anonymous until after the auction had ended, so I had to keep this under my hat.  I hope it went to an appreciative home!