O Sole Mio

Do you remember the advert that used 'O Sole Mio' to advertise an ice cream?  It is from 1981 so you might not remember!  Click on the year if you don't know what I'm talking about!

Anyway, back to the fabric.  In my last post 'In the compost bin' I showed you what I had done with my Venice child's costume.

I  cut up the pieces again and using Mistyfuse and Lisa Walton's Fantastic Fusion method to make squares.

 

 

I cut up the squares again and using mistyfuse, fused them to a piece of dyed and printed cotton that I didn't like.

 

 

Then got stuck again.  As I was driving to a friend's for coffee I remembered that when I made the Venice dress my alternative 3D suggestion was to make a cone.  You can see my sketchbook from 2019 on my Containers post.  To see the cone research you need to scroll down the post.

Back to what I did!  I cut a cone shape from the collaged fabric.  Then realised I should have put a more attractive fabric on the back.  It would have been easier to do it before I cut it up!  But never mind.  I bonded the fabric onto the back.

 

 

I also machined it with preset stitches

 

 

I took the cut off pieces and added them to the cone shape with the sewing machine.  I hand sewed the join.  I remembered that I had this block of wood with a dowel rod in it that Roger had made me for a different project and hadn't used.

I painted the stand.

Back to the beginning.  The original music 'O Solo Mio' was written about Naples.  However since 1981 the song with the advert words has forever been associated with Venice.  When I put this piece into an exhibition I shall call it O Sole Mio or Just One Cornetto.

Which name would you choose?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

In the compost bin

In 2019 when I was doing my Master Practitioner course I made this dress based on - guess where - yes that's right - Venice!

I never liked the skirt and at one time I was going to redo it.  However in the end, I cut it up.  As you do!

I chopped the pieces up and tried out different ways of putting them back together

A friend suggested I put the pieces in the compost bin so that the worms would digest some of the fabric and give it a decayed look.  The two pieces were in the compost for 2 months and nothing happened.

I tried cutting into the pieces to give the worms a better opportunity to nibble.

Nothing happened, except the back had mottled staining.  Then my husband wanted to use the compost so the pieces came out.  I rinsed them through.

Last week I took them to a studio day at Littleheath Barn in the hopes that Liske would have some ideas.  She suggested I lightly painted over the bright blue parts and the metallic bits.  I did that and it's knocked it back considerably.  I then cut it the pieces into strips.  In the second photo I've turned some of the pieces over so you can see the mottling.

Now I just have to decide what to do with the pieces, other than throw them in the bin!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Grids. And more grids!

In September I told you about the Maps & More workshops at Littleheath Barn.   The next session was in October after I returned from Australia.  I realised I hadn't written about that.

We did the grid exercise where you put masking tape horizontally and vertically onto fabric and then print in various ways over the grids.  I had found some narrow tape on Amazon which was a hideous green.  However it did the job.

When the green masking tape was taken off it was thrown away.

The finished cloth is rather more orange than the photo shows which doesn't really match my Venice colour palette.  So as homework I had another go.  This time using only my Venice related stamps, stencils and Thermofax screens.  I used some of the narrow green tape because it's really easy to make curves with.

I did two versions

This time I put the masking tape into my sketchbook.

Here's another page from the sketchbook

Our next session is in December so I'm afraid you'll have to wait to see what I do with these.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice