This weekend, I'm holing myself up in the studio to work on samples for an upcoming class called, A Story in the Making: Creating Story Cloth with Print and Stitch. Unlike most of my classes, which are technique-driven, this class focuses on creating a story...actually letting the story unfold... while working with surface design techniques.
Today, I'm starting with a possible jumpstart for the class. I'm going to ask them to bring in objects that speak to them. This could be any object that catches their attention. I had a look in my china cabinet and these two objects caught my eye...
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| Stone carving of a rooster and a sunflower that I bought at some point for $24. Quite honestly, I don't remember buying it! |
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| An heirloom. My great grandfather's prayerbook. It's not in the best shape, but I love the carving (bone or ivory), the maroon velvet and metalwork on the cover. |
In addition, I want there to be some random element...a little bit of unpredictability. I decided to close my eyes and flip through The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images published by Taschen.
This is the page I landed on...
As I did all of the above last night, I had time to do a bit of brainstorming and connecting the elements and starting a story in my head. I wrote and scribbled sketches (more of that in a future post).
I started to think about the rooster in the stone carving who is most likely to become the protagonist of the story. I thought of Chagall's roosters.
I thought about a book I have on paper cutting (a topic that seems to be swirling around in my head lately) that has some rooster designs.
Then, I realized that there were other roosters and hens lurking about the house.
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| A wonderful and very colorful mother hen with her chicks stitched on burlap, from Haiti |
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| Two angry roosters embroidered on cotton, from Mexico. |
So, now I am gathering my thoughts and heading for the studio.
I want to keep an open mind about the story as I play with the fabric paints, create blocks and stencils and start in.
Wish me luck!
