Vertaal

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Numbers 3:16 start

Numbers 3:16
And Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD, as he was commanded. 

Another book and verse to start thinking about. When I first saw the verse I thought there is not much to think about.....What am I going to make of this?
Usually I start with reading a commentary about the chapter, jotting down words, or drawing pictures I associate with the verse. And I always put it into google and quickly scrolling over images. Not much came up, only pictures associated with Moses I guess. Like these:



Not much help.

Reading from Matthew Henry I gathered that Moses had to count all the Levites from a month old and upward. The babies of course couldn't serve in the tabernacle, but still had to be included. It appears that a little more than a third part of the Levites were fit to be employed in the service of the tabernacle (about 8000 out of 22.000). Yet God would have them all numbered.

So I started thinking about numbering, counting, people. How would I express that??
Counting is done in different ways. Putting people in groups or families. You can count on  your fingers, write down numbers, or dots, or lines.

After all this verse took more planning then I first thought....For the first time I haven't made any sketches. It just took root in my mind. I came up with an idea of some embroidery, picturing a sort of counting system. The background has to be a mixture of fabric painting/stamping. What colour I don't know yet.

First some experiments:
Some fabric dyeing and scrunching for a background I can later maybe stamp on. But the colours didn't turn out very well. Tried some free motion sewing and painting some petals. Mainly out of curiosity to see it the paints hold and not bleed.



Tried rubbing a derwent Inktense block over some fibrous underlay. Not what I need, but keep it for maybe some other piece.



Rubbing to get a grid pattern. And burning holes with a soldering iron into cobweb paper. fun....but very smelly and probably not very good for my lungs ;)



Putting fabric over letter stencils and then rubbing with oil sticks. Like! And an idea for the background fabric.



Yes, Counting!! A Sneak Peek what I am doing with the embroidery. I had some white embroidery cotton which I dyed in a strong coffee and tea mixture. It's got a nice natural colour now :)




Tuesday 21 August 2012

Leviticus finished

And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the LORD'S. Lev. 3:16

Due to family visit I haven't been able to spend much time on designing and sewing, let alone blogging...But I am back into it now!

This one symbolizes the offering the priest had to make. It appeared that it had to be the kidneys. So I decided to make this from a birds' eye perspective. So you see the yellow (with copper foiling on top, which is not really visible in the picture) rims of the altar and its 4 corners. I tried to make a sort of 'coal' structure on the black fabric and on it you see the kidneys. Inside the kidney I cut up different reds, oranges and yellows and cut them into flame shapes to represent burning. The fat is free motion sewn into a netting shape. It is the Lord's as it spirals out over the edge.

 Btw the picture should be rotated 90 degrees left...but can't figure that out right now.

Detail. You can also see the words which I stamped on the rim of the altar.


I have also done some interesting binding technique. You can't see it because it is at the back. I didn't want a visible binding, because that would restrain it and it already has some sort of frame anyway.

Faced binding technique I used and learned from a dvd I watched: Design, Paint and Stitch by Judy Coates Perez.

Cut 4 wide fabric strips, fold them in half. Sew the raw edge to the quilt raw edge, but start and stop 1/4 inch from the beginning and end.

Fold the corners on a 45 deg. angle and finger press them.


This picture should be last, but for some reason I am fighting with blogspot today ;), but this one shows how the back of the quilt looks. Nice and clean finish

Sew on the pressed line. And trim seam back to 1/4 inch. Fold to the back.