Mandatory disclaimer here, the way I work is as "period" as I can manage not an actual process recorded in history and in most instances will not be following the sparse details that are available. The reason? I can no longer physically execute quiet a number of movements requiring dexterity.
Here I've been developing the concept of the peacock motif for use as a border design in totality. Again, I'm falling back on extent textile designs and interpretations, although admittedly modifying some of the traditional details. In this case it's due to the size of the fabric this will be worked on, the scale of the design I want meshing with the space. I've eliminated some of the repeat borders and "pearls", enlarged the pearls incorporated into the overall design for practical reasons and turned the linear peacock into a positive image with a few more details to add interest.
My options for actually doing this are as follows: The arrow heads - stenciled or stamped. If stamping is chosen to mimic the block printing technique traditionally used, then I will add the rules top and bottom to the stamp and carve it as a single "block". The pearls will be a commercially produced stamp. Any gilding will be painted on by hand after the stamping is dry and set into the textile.
Will this be the final design? Probably not. Traditionally there could be a small circular motif added separating the motif of each peacock. As I look at the image here, I will probably add an "eye" to represent the peacock feather eye in the bird's tail in the same single colour of the block and outline it with gilt rather than a blob of gilt dumped in there. For the past couple of months I have been brooding on how I would dye the bottom edge of the fabric red without it bleeding too badly into the image area. This area of red colour is often seen in extent pieces of fabric of the period and I should like to replicate it. Ideally the peacocks should have a background colour - usually a watery indigo, even allowing for the dye to fade over the centuries. The easiest way for me to execute this would be to paint it. Historically a resist would have been applied and the fabric immersed in the various dye baths during the dying stages.
What this exercise does do for both me and the design is that it prompts production ideas, refines the motif, achieves a more harmonious marriage between my personal tastes versus period and hopefully working my way through these numerous sketches arrives at a good, solid foundation to invest time, effort and money into the project.
Aside from more developmental sketches on reworking the concept the next step is going to be prepping scraps of the fabric to be embellished and then using these for a multitude of experimental samplers with notes as a record of each step. For my own reference these notes and scraps get pasted into a journal for future use, in the event I ever need to recall exactly "how did I do that?"
Here I've been developing the concept of the peacock motif for use as a border design in totality. Again, I'm falling back on extent textile designs and interpretations, although admittedly modifying some of the traditional details. In this case it's due to the size of the fabric this will be worked on, the scale of the design I want meshing with the space. I've eliminated some of the repeat borders and "pearls", enlarged the pearls incorporated into the overall design for practical reasons and turned the linear peacock into a positive image with a few more details to add interest.
My options for actually doing this are as follows: The arrow heads - stenciled or stamped. If stamping is chosen to mimic the block printing technique traditionally used, then I will add the rules top and bottom to the stamp and carve it as a single "block". The pearls will be a commercially produced stamp. Any gilding will be painted on by hand after the stamping is dry and set into the textile.
Will this be the final design? Probably not. Traditionally there could be a small circular motif added separating the motif of each peacock. As I look at the image here, I will probably add an "eye" to represent the peacock feather eye in the bird's tail in the same single colour of the block and outline it with gilt rather than a blob of gilt dumped in there. For the past couple of months I have been brooding on how I would dye the bottom edge of the fabric red without it bleeding too badly into the image area. This area of red colour is often seen in extent pieces of fabric of the period and I should like to replicate it. Ideally the peacocks should have a background colour - usually a watery indigo, even allowing for the dye to fade over the centuries. The easiest way for me to execute this would be to paint it. Historically a resist would have been applied and the fabric immersed in the various dye baths during the dying stages.
What this exercise does do for both me and the design is that it prompts production ideas, refines the motif, achieves a more harmonious marriage between my personal tastes versus period and hopefully working my way through these numerous sketches arrives at a good, solid foundation to invest time, effort and money into the project.
Aside from more developmental sketches on reworking the concept the next step is going to be prepping scraps of the fabric to be embellished and then using these for a multitude of experimental samplers with notes as a record of each step. For my own reference these notes and scraps get pasted into a journal for future use, in the event I ever need to recall exactly "how did I do that?"
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2 comments:
I'm so glad that you're sharing your process. It's the easiest way for me to learn, since you write in the same manner as your speech.
Thanks.
Hon you're very welcome.
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