Today is this year’s third Four in Art reveal. Our theme for this year is ‘Light’ and the sub-theme for this quarter is ‘Stained Glass Shadows’. Our aim, as always, is: “…to break out of the usual gridded experience and try a new concept, free of structure or preconception, moving the boundaries of our own skills forward in both concept and technique”.
My offering for this quarter is, I’m afraid, something of a fail – hence the and in my title…
I did think this was a wonderful challenge and I had some quite elaborate plans for interpreting this theme (perhaps one day I will make that quilt!) but after a month filled with one funeral (and an extraordinary amount of related activity), much cleaning and house sorting and many guests the deadline drew nearer and nearer without a stitch being stitched. Finally, yesterday morning I found myself home alone and with the the thought that having ‘something’ to post would be better than having nothing to post, I set to making something as simple as possible as fast as possible.
Before I embarked on this, I held a piece of the shot cotton up to the window and I felt sure it cast a coloured shadow…
But when it was finished, I tried to get a stained glass shadow effect and no colour was to be seen. I tried painting the back of the ‘glass’ fabrics with mod podge but, perhaps not unpredictably, it didn’t help…
Having no time to add a quilted ‘shadow’ or try anything else, I am posting it it anyway and taking the Edison/light bulb view. I have learnt one of the many ways not to make a shadow-casting stained glass window from fabric.
Please visit the other members of Four in Art and see their interpretations of this quarter’s theme.
Bette Ayers Camilla Cathro Catherine Chisholm
Elizabeth Eastmond Nancy Myers Rachel Riley Simone Bradford
Janine @ Rainbow Hare
I’m linking this post with Kathy’s Kwilts and More for this weeks TGIFF
Archie The Wonder Dog
Well I think it’s lovely!!
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Beth T.
If we each share only our successes, we are left thinking that everyone only succeeds. That’s not life, is it? Nor is it truly the creative experience, so the expectation can be so discouraging. Thank you for keeping it real, and congratulations on coming out of it with a lovely quilt in the process. My “failures” are seldom so charming.
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Marion
Definitely not a failure Janine. You have made your window the right shape and used the right colours. It is still a masterpiece even if the colours don’t shine through. Marion
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Elizabeth E.
I love that you pulled together this lovely arrangement of stained glass for our reveal today, and I think it’s spectacular that you were able to get ALL those colors arranged as if some old master of cut glass was working. I didn’t expect the light to go through the piece, but only to have it evoke the idea. I love it!
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knitnkwilt
You may not have shown shadows, but you have a great stained glass window with the feeling of the light outside while being in a dark inside. Not only did you learn “this is not the way to do that” as you note, but you did do something else. (I too think the ‘this is not the way to do that” lessons are important. Had a professor once who said there should be a journal of negative results so others would be spared from repeating experiments on hypotheses that didn’t work.)
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SomedaySewing
It’s gorgeous! I definitely don’t think it is a failure, but I do understand when you have an idea in your head and that is all you want. It is so stunning with the light coming through it!
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Catherine Chisholm
I think it’s a triumph in adversity, Janine! It looks beautiful!
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Rachel
I think it’s a lovely quilt. I think it looks just like a stained glass window. I also like the challenge of thinking how to get a colored shadow through glass. I’m so glad you participated with all of the challenges of late. Looking forward to the next quarter.
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Celtic Thistle Stitches
Janine it may nit be what you had in mind but it is a wonderful finish all the same, I think you deserve a pat on the back for that :)
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Betty Ayers
No failure here, Janine! I love just looking at this stained glass and good you for knowing that shot cottons would convey the look needed. This challenge was tough to interpret with fabric, I thought, but your piece does it well – congrats!
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Camilla
It may not be what you had in mind but it works beautifully just as it is!
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Carol
I guess I wouldn’t have thought that fabric would cast a colored shadow. But I like the piece your made. And it DID cast a shadow…a frosted glass shadow. I’m just thinking about how events in our lives can just hijack our creative thought. I’ve had that all year. Funerals abound and health issues have given thought provoking scares. So I weed outside, and reorganize my “room” and meditate to think it all out.
Slow down. Take a breath. Relax. There’ alway ANOTHER challenge.
xx, Carol
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Marly
I like your “window”; it may not meet your criteria but nevertheless it’s beautiful. In my view you did an excellent job getting this finished in one day.
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Janinemarie
It may not have turned out the way you imagined, but it is still beautiful. The shot cottons make it shimmer, and I bet their color variations are really visible in person. Sometimes life throws curve balls, but the fact that you were able to make something beautiful during a time of stress has a lovely message in itself.
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Mandy Fell
Wow you did a great job at trying to do all the things. What a great learning thing it must have been. Really like it all the same even if it doesn’t do what it’s meant to. You did really well! Looks gorgeous. Love that fabric you have used for the colours.
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