Not All Black & White

I choose very early to go with a black and white theme to this incandescence challenge and life happened so it is late but done enough to post. A few beads are telling me they need to be added to reflect more light as the metallic thread needs a little help. Joan will be pleased.
Why the black and white? It is the light that incandescence brings to the dark. Sometimes our thoughts are debating the positive and negative aspects of a subject --weaving together sometimes not aligned straight which makes us feel uncomfortable but in the end we express our thoughts in an enlightened way if we listen more.
Weaving the ribbons comes from my love of weaving and I loved the transparency they offered. A fun challenge - thank you and I look forward to round three and being on time.
Janet

Incandescence by Joan

Incandescence Challenge:

Hi everyone:  I know I am late, late, late, but here it is.

When the theme “Incandescence” was announced, I thought of heat, reflected light, Northern Lights, sun, moon and a lot of other things that might work

I have always loved Northwest Native Art. I have a couple of carved bracelets, one the sun and the other the moon. I looked at both of them, and put together a sketch incorporating some designs from each. The other thing I have wanted to do for some time is work with metal, adding it to fibre. Voila! I thought, a copper sun/moon.

This is my sketch...

I enlarged the sketch, then traced it on to copper shim with a stylus. I didn’t like the narrow line that resulted. To make the embossing thicker, I glued and taped kitchen string to the back of the copper, in the narrow lines, and used a paper blender to push the copper down and around the string. I liked that effect.





 I then mounted the copper on to Tim Tex by curling the copper around to the back of the Tim Tex. It worked, but I do need more practice.

Now that I had what looked like a trivet, I had to figure out how to mount it. I thought black was the way to go to show up the copper color so I  made a quiltlet, couched heavy metallic thread with a fine copper thread to look like rays. Now to attach the two pieces - Pippa said “why not attach it by hand”, and so I did, with black Perle cotton.

Meet my CopperFace.

Once I got into it, I loved the process. I think I'd  like to do play some more with metal on fabric.

The Third Challenge

It's time to cool things down from the heat of "Incandescence" - so the next challenge, which is due December 31 - is

"Frost"

INCANDESCENT MARILYN by Gladys

When this theme was announced, I had to go to the dictionary to look for meanings and interpretations.  What I found was:

Incandescence is the emission of light (visible electromagnetic radiation) from a hot body as a result of its temperature.^[1] The term derives from the Latin verb incandescere, to glow white.^[2] Incandescence is a special case of thermal radiation. Incandescence usually refers specifically to visible light, while thermal radiation refers also to infrared or any other electromagnetic radiation.

Having read this there were multiple ideas swirling in my head.  But that's normal.  I'm an idea person, and seldom a completion person!  How's that for True Confessions?  However, back to the theme.....almost immediately I came up with this idea and tried to think of reasons not to do it, but nothing else came out of my hands so here we are.  I started late in my attempts to do something to do with fire, which didn't work, and then finally got down to what I wanted to do in the first place.  They say listen to your heart and I should have because I'm happy with and had fun making this piece.   

I thought instead of light or the normal sources of heat, I thought of sex appeal, which is another elusive kind of heat.  There has been of late, a lot of resurgence of interest in Marilyn Monroe, the all time sex symbol for my generation.  Here is the picture I chose to use for a reference, found on Pinterest.  

Looking at this photo made me wonder what it was that radiated the sex appeal she was famous for.  Was it the looks?  There have been lots of women just as, or even more beautiful.  Was it the body language?  Or was it the diamonds?  I don't know and probably never will, but I truly enjoyed interpreting this photo to my 12" x 12" interpretation of Incandescence.

The project is worked on a black background which has a few sparkles on it.  The face and hair are layer upon layer of chiffons, both polyester and silk.  The face and shoulder are obviously carefully cut to indicate the appropriate shadows and shapes.  But the hair I truly enjoyed doing.  I just free hand cut teardrop shapes of all the colors of chiffon I had in yellow, pale yellow, glittery yellow and white and stitched down each piece as I went along, building up the shades and shapes and covering what didn't fit with a couple more layers.  A really free way to work and I enjoyed every minute of it and am happy with how it turned out.  The embellishments (did you know I love to embellish!!) are bits of treasures from my collection, a single earring, a strip off a dress from the thrift shop that I tore the diamonds off and kept, and a set of plastic eyelashes designed for Halloween but perfect for enhancing her sultry look.  The binding is metallic fabric and that was a trick!   

Thank you Barb, for coming up with such a great theme.   

INCANDESCENCE by Diane B

This topic was a very challenging one for me.    It took awhile to get past thoughts of a light bulb in the dark.    After seeing the many unique interpretations of the first topic,  Island,  I thought that any thing you can imagine goes.    Gardening and flowers are a big part of my life.   Lilies in bloom do a wonderful job of lighting up my back yard.

I used a photo of a Day Lily from my garden, with some help from Photoshop, then came up with a usable design.   The flower is made of silk fusion. Stitching was done to define the veins.   An extra layer of batting was added behind the flower. The flower was then applied to the back ground.  Stamens were made of silk yarn and beads added.  There are slanted vertical quilting lines in the back ground,  also long stitches using an iridescent thread.   

 A fun and challenging topic.  Diane Boyko

Catching Fireflies by Kari C.

 

When I first heard our theme, I immediately thought of light…obviously! 

My mind then ventured into a familiar memory from childhood…catching fireflies. 

Then I discovered this poem by KatMeow, an Internet author: 

<http://authspot.com/poetry/incandescence>

“The firefly

      Has shed

      A flicker

Of its warm light

     Hung it about

A strand of moonbeam

     To grace

          my person

     With a token

Of incandescence.” 

Since I also wanted to incorporate some form of technology and had recently read about lights in quilts, fireflies seemed like the perfect choice! I used the LilyPad E-sewing kit from SparkFun and was impressed by how simple the company made the process. 

Incandescence by Pippa M.

Here is my response to our "Incandescence" theme. I began by thinking about the sun, and then thought about that most basic source of incandescence - the candle. I thought about incorporating the wonderful Peter, Paul and Mary song - "Light one Candle". But time was running out, and I still didn't have my piece made (I am truly a woman of the last minute!), and so I went back to the very basic idea of light. Which could be the sun, or could be part of a fireworks exhibition. I'll leave it up to you.

I worked with lots and lots of already fused fabrics that I had left over from a class with Sue Benner. I just began cutting them up, and starting with the lighter colours in the centre, placing them on a teflon pressing sheet. Every row or two, I would fuse them together, and then added the next rows. Originally I was going to put it on the background in a horizontal orientation, but I changed my mind at the last minute, and like this much better. I finished with machine quilting in rayon threads, and then added the sun centre at the very end. It's made of a layer of lame, overlaid with a layer of gold netting.

I enjoyed this challenge much more than the last, perhaps because I am much more pleased with the outcome. So bring on the next challenge!