Techniques:
Pieced
and quilted by machine. All but one of the fish was fused on. Each
fish is heavily embellished with free-motion machine embroidery. Other
surface embellishments of ribbon, wool, rayon, and cotton threads
were added by machine and hand couching, and completed with glass
beading by hand.
When I finished putting the binding on, I thought I had this piece
completed. After
a while, I realized that there were problems with the values (lights/darks) in
the piece, and that the Koi were getting lost in the "water" background. I
went back to my design board and to my boxes of embellishments and threads, and
started working on the piece. After working "again" on this wall hanging,
I am very satisfied. I entered my Koi into several juried shows,
and the Koi were swimming successfully!
There were several lessons were learned while working on this piece,
but I think the most important one is - Give yourself permission to
change your work even if you have already declared it completed. The artist and their art are
always "works in progress"!
If you would like to view the "Before-and-After" detail pictures of
this wall hanging, please click on the link below.
