Connections

23" x 14"

Left: revised, red metallic Lumiere paint added over the gold, plus some pewter Lumiere dabbed here and there for more variation, and fringe a bit trimmed.

Right: original
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This actually seems to fit in a series with the piece I produced for the other challenge that I hosted, but not at all intentionally! When I started, my three sons plus one fiance and one girlfriend were visiting, and I wanted to capture the idea of family connectedness and love.

I began with a piece of material with a pattern of white-on-white circles, then overlaid it with a piece of black gauze. I cut some thin wavy strips from the gauze and overlaid them, then tucked in the three ribbon florets and began sewing the strips down with various fancy stitches, and added a narrow maroon ribbon. I then cut the shield shape out of foam core and hand-sewed the edges, leaving the gauze to hang down, and put just a bit of gold leaf around to pull the edges in, and a bit of hand-stitching with a few little beads.

At this point, though, neither I nor any of the enlarged household really thought this was all that great. It took youngest son's suggestion of an overlay to lead me to pull out a piece of orange mesh, the sort that may have come from a bag of oranges, and put that on top, cutting out just enough to let the ribbon florets through to the top, which may not be as obvious unless you see it close up.

This actually took quite a different direction than I had anticipated!