The Final Product

I have spent the last several days trying to figure out what to do with the piece I made in the last post.  I didn't really care for the initial image, so I decided it didn't matter a whole lot if I wrecked it by experimenting. I almost did.  The first thing I did was take out the fiber board I had put in because after I washed it a few times, it fell apart.  I then stitched over that area to de emphasize it.  I overdyed it. I decided to try painting some bleach on it to take color out.  I used paint and a thermofax image I had to add circles.  I washed it in dish soap to try to shrink it more as Terry http://studio24-7.blogspot.com/ suggested. Nothing worked.  I was ready to cut it up and try to work on several individual pieces, when I sat back and looked at it and realized I really like the stitching in this piece.

I knew that to emphasize the stitching I had to cover up the images, and I didn't think this would work very effectively with dye, so I got out my fabric paints and went to work.  This method is reminiscent of the art Deidre Adams  http://abstractions.deidreadams.com/ makes and I think it is very effective in showing off the stitching.

I have two photos, one with the flash, one without, because I was in a hurry and didn't want to take the time to set up my tripod, lighting etc.  So the top photo is the real red and the bottom photo is the real blue. it's kind of hard to see, but in the top photo, you can still see bits of the images from underneath.  I thought about covering them up, but I think they add some depth to the piece.

As far as shrinkage,, this piece ended up 52 wide by 39 long, not much shrinkage.  I am not sure this method would have worked if it had shrunk a lot, because the crevasses might be too deep, but I happen to have a piece with crevasses that I'm going to try it out on.