Challenge 46

FFFC Challenge # 46 June 2010 Host Kathy Walker

Geology with Unexpected Colors: ou are free to use whatever techniques and materials you feel your piece requires. Do keep in mind the elements of design, and that value can be more important than color.

When I was in the 9th grade I took an Earth Science class. It wasn’t really what I wanted to take, I would have preferred Biology but for some reason that option wasn’t available to me. Anyway I did enjoy the class far more than I expected to, that class helped to reinforce a long time love of rocks and in interest in the structures of the earth. In Earth Science we studied meteorology, some paleontology and Geology. Geology is the study of the earth itself that includes rocks, their names and how and when they were formed and the structures that rocks form. Included in the study are earthquakes, volcanoes, and now plate tectonics. When I was in school plate tectonics was a crazy fringe idea that couldn’t possibly be true. With the discovery of deep ocean ridges and their upwelling magma we now know that plate tectonics is how the earth’s crust moves and restores itself.

The theme for this month is Geology, you can take whatever aspect that interests you, from a single rock/crystal to the fantastic layers of rock that have been formed over the millennia, creating features such as mountains, or the structures of Monument Valley, or even the grand canyon.

To add a bit of spice to this challenge I have added the concept of using unexpected colors for your piece. If the stones are gray use purple or red, if the layers of the earth are red, and orange, use their complements. Feel free to play with color, if things clash a bit so much the better.
Various quilters have used geological themes in their quilts. I have tried to find as many of those who have quilts on-line as possible for examples.

Links:
Michele Hardy, Quilter now living in Colorado, http://www.michelehardy.com/GeoformsGallery.html

Esterita Austin creates quilts with rock images, http://www.esteritaaustin.com/gallerymain.htm

Denise Labadie quilts the Irish stone landscape, while these are not strictly speaking geological forms they are portraying stones in the landscape:
http://www.labadiefiberart.com/Galleries/Dolmens/Dolmens.html

Brenda H. Smith lives in the Southwest, here are some of her quilts inspired by the region she lives in http://www.brendasmithquilts.com/galleries/southwest.html
A Quilt inspired by a trip on the Colorado River by Donna June Katz A page from Art Quilts a Celebration by Lark Books
http://books.google.com/books?id=du70qFhVwgwC&lpg=PA360&ots=TxhfVXK4Ry&dq=geology%20quilts&pg=PA360#v=onepage&q&f=false

More of Donna’s quilts, scroll down they are at the bottom of the page.
http://www.fiberarts.com/article_archive/gallery/flora_fauna.asp

Handwerk by Bonnie M. Bucknam http://www.handwerktextiles.com/quiltgeology.html

Two quilts of Katie Pasquini Masopust, note her use of colors
http://www.katiepm.com/slotlarge.html
http://www.katiepm.com/antelopelarge.html

Some images to inspire:
National Geographic did an article on the Giant Crystals in the Cave of Crystals in Mexico
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/photogalleries/giant-crystals-cave/

Not quilts but Lapidary, Susan Judy a Geologist who uses cut stone the way quilters use fabric, for inspiration only. http://www.stonequiltdesign.com/portfolio.aspx