Friday, January 29, 2010

Waggle Dance

 Whilst experimenting with painting batting and the fracture challenge cogitating in the sub-concious, I was reminded of our bee-keeping days in the latter years of the last century. I started sewing strata in the colors I chose, yellow, purple and green. As I moved from one thing to another, I thought.... hmmmm... why couldn't I 'paint' batting with thread. So, there there are multiple techniques in this piece.
Besides thread and paint and the obvious commercial cotton, I used wool roving and silk hankie shreds.
I used my favorite thread.... all rayon by the way...
Waggle dance is a term used in beekeeping figure-eight dance of the honey bee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share with the hive information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar and pollen. Color is also a discrimination.

I look forward to your comments.

P.S. My neighbor from San Francisco loves this piece, says it reminds him of Haight-Ashbury. Maybe I should call it Graffiti.
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12 comments:

  1. Chris Predd1/30/10, 7:45 AM

    Great feeling of spring! and wonderful stitching. I particularly enjoy the teal pieces and stitched flowers. I don't think I'll ever forget the term waggle dance either.

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  2. Art by Rhoda Forbes1/30/10, 10:04 PM

    This is a wonderful composition CArole, and done on batting, good for you. The thread work is very nice,I guess the fracture effect would be the green pieces, am I correct? Wonderful work again.

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  3. Carole1/30/10, 10:12 PM

    Yes, I did have that in mind.. in an abstract way... but more 'real', I thought the wings?

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  4. Cherie in Del Mar1/30/10, 11:34 PM

    The stitching draws the eye along the 'waggle dance' path of the bees. A fun and happy piece. Nice techniques too. I haven't tried painting on batting...YET! LOL Now I must :-)
    Cherie

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  5. Jan1/31/10, 11:07 AM

    I like your innovative approach to this challenge. I guessed the fracture part of the challenge to be the wings. I like the quilting, and the upper and lower green pieces draw your eye up and back down to the bee. I like it!

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  6. LAQuilts1/31/10, 8:12 PM

    I like the roving flowers. It would be interesting see a more varied background.

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  7. Carole1/31/10, 10:34 PM

    With the batting as the background, I filled it with thread 'painting'... I have thought of, and may yet, airbrush the whole piece which may satisfy the eye that has a problem with nudity.

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  8. Cynthia Ann Morgan2/1/10, 3:44 PM

    Hi Carole...I agree with your neighbor, it has a 60's flower power feel to it. Charming, bold and delicate at the same time.
    Cynthia

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  9. Pam Harris2/2/10, 2:03 PM

    Fun, bright, and lively piece with interesting techniques. Good job!! I like the nudity and wonder if you would lose some of the brightness with airbrushing. If you do airbrush, I hope you post.

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  10. Michele/TextileTraveler2/3/10, 4:52 AM

    I like the soft, whimsical quality of this piece. There's so much to draw my eye around, and I see something new every time I look at it.

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  11. Joni2/5/10, 9:45 AM

    Carole, I can hear the little hum of your bee as he makes his little waggle dance, it makes me long for summer! Nice job.

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  12. Betty Donahue2/27/10, 1:34 PM

    Such a happy piece. I really like the dancing bees
    Betty

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