Frayed Edges Grid

Sarah has been blogging about our Frayed Edges group project for our show at the Camden, Maine library in August. It's been a challenging, inspiring and fun project.

As a group, we chose a photo from each of the five Frayed Edges. Then we each created a piece of art inspired by each of the five photos. Sarah created the concept for hanging the works so they will form a large grid on the wall with each row representing one of the photos and each column representing one of the artists. Because the wall space is limited, some of the photos are horizontal (just 7x10) and some are vertical (5x7).

I decided I wanted all five of my pieces to look cohesive and use the same techniques and materials. I printed each photo on Extravorganza and then layered several elements including some handwriting, beading, cut-outs and a small bit of machine quilting. Some of the photos worked well with the materials and techniques I chose -- others, not so much. But as a whole, I think they work.

These pictures are all scans, so some of them looked a bit smooshed, but I think they show nice detail.
5 Views: Pool This is my photo -- actually taken by my husband in El Salvador. I kept wanting to add more to this piece, but I just couldn't figure out the right set of elements. It's fine as it is, I suppose. There is a line of red seed beads in the red columns and the same line repeated in a more blueish red seed bead in the reflection.

5 Views: Museum This is Sarah's photo. I was pleased with the results of the layering in this piece. I wanted to mix some commercial fabrics into the pieces, but it was really hard to find just the right pattern. Something that didn't compete with the photo but still dynamic enough to have a reason to be there.

5 Views: Garden This is my favorite. It's Hannah's picture. It's the first one I did and the one I least expected to be a success. You never know! Those flower shaped sequins are from the sequin soup Hannah brough from China. I love the assymmetry and abstractness of the piece -- and yet still obviously floral.

5 Views: Cathedral This is Kate's picture from Kiev. The background is kind of smooshy on this one. Maybe I should have quilted it more. It's really all about the gold domes... so I used gold seed and bugle beads and that yellow fabric. The small cut out windows are pretty subtle. I tried to add more to this one also, but nothing seemed right.

5 Views: Beach This is Kathy's picture. The ultimate study in complimentary colors, right? In the photo you can actually see people walking along the beach at the horizon. I turned them into beads. I was pleased with the quilting lines on this one -- it really enhanced the shape of the umbrella. You can see Kate's cheeky interpretation of Kathy's photo on Sarah's blog. (It's on the bottom.)

Now that these pieces and the Lark submissions are done, I've got nothing at all on the design wall. It feels inspiring.