29 March 2016

"Edge" developments

You get a fixation  about what it's possible to do, and then someone says something that shifts it. I was fixated on having fabric in the middle of the Edge piece - and then Karen wondered about sanding the words off the pages. I thought of lots of reasons to not do that (it's not fabric; how to join those pages; how many would be needed; how long it would take;  would the paper withstand the sanding; the dust and mess...).

But tried it anyway - and I'm liking the look of it.
 It'll look different in the larger scale, but you get an idea of the contrast in value in the sample -
Might need to glue or bond the paper to fabric so that the large expanse doesn't come to harm if the quilt is juried in and has to travel round to the many venues that have been arranged for CQ's "On the Edge Challenge" exhibition in the next couple of years.

Next experiment: glue paper to fabric and sand it after glueing.

Further thoughts: gauze layer over top? Gesso (tinted?)?

You won't know till you try.

2 comments:

Living to work - working to live said...

The problem with paper quilts is the travelling, as you say. A couple of my tissue quilts have a few signs of wear just from going travelling. Finishing with something like Matt medium or acrylic wax seems to help. Good luck as I just don't think I'm going to get one in this year (again - missed last year too. Time ran away with me!)

Sandy said...

I really like the middle layer.
Like Hilary says, acrylic wax works good to strengthen paper.
Will it be rolled? This might also weaken it considerably because it will want to foldroll (new word) which will crack the middle. I know this from having a piece with acrylic waxed paper returned folded in the middle over the paper rather than in thirds around the paper. So I would also fuse it to fabric to give more strength.
And yes, not gauze, but silk organza fused or PVA glued to the front of words would give you a similar look.
Sandy