Thursday, July 9, 2020

New Dolls for ArtCats Gallery

Oriental Poppy Woman
Sunflower Woman






































A customer at ArtCats Gallery in Muskegon MI requested a commission for two Square Headed Women dolls in the flower themes of Oriental Poppy and a second one of Sunflower.  It was a great challenge that I loved.

I used some fabric from my most recent 3-D shibori stitched and indigo dyed fabric to make the dress fabric for the two dolls.  The dress for the Poppy is mokume which reminded me of the leaves of the Oriental Poppy.

Sunflowers have big oval pointed leaves.  The dress for the Sunflower Woman is exaggerated whole cloth ori-nui pressed flat unlike the Poppy Woman.

The petals of the poppy are red silk organza around black flocked netting.  The sunflower is constructed of many yellow cotton petals, ruched yellow-orange crinkled cotton and a discharged green knit fabric. Both dolls' flowers have stems of my printed knit tube.  And both have green UltraSuede faces!

Oriental Poppy leaf

3-D Shibori Indigo Pieces for "Tiny But Mighty" exhibit

Pink Volcano Landscape
Close-up 
Wild Jungle Leaves
Detail
Lush Bananas


















I've continued with the three-dimensional shibori and indigo dyed work.

This time I did 8" x 8" square pieces (the maximum size required for the entries to the "Tiny But Mighty" exhibit at the d'Art Center in Norfolk VA).  This is their 2nd National Exhibition of Small Artworks.
















The "Pink Volcano Landscape" piece is a collage of cotton and knit fabric shibori.  The kumo "mountains" and ori-nui wiggles are two of the most 3-D shibori which I love doing.

"Wild Jungle Leaves" is shaped shibori (maki-age) which I love to do in leaf shapes.  The cotton was dyed as low immersion in yellows and oranges so that overdyeing in indigo created an odd green.

"Lush Bananas" is a whole cloth piece in exaggerated ori-nui.  The embroidery uses the holes created during the first shibori stitching.
Detail