Over the last couple of weeks I have been working with the topics of woven pattern and motherhood in print. When you have a new baby, you are surrounded by all kinds of different fabrics and weaves all with their own particular tactile quality. There’s the muslin used when burping (or lying down) a baby, the mollin in the crib, terry cloth everywhere, for towels, bibs, and wash cloths, the mull for navel dressing, the velvet of romber suits, and the coarse woven structure of baby carrying shawls. And – oh my god – the sudden onslaught of laundry. It’s a very fabric world, a new Mum is living in, and so I presented her in this world, a backdrop of fabric…
To stress the idea of the Mum being surrounded by fabric, I thought of the tunnel books I made a long time ago. But the structure of a tunnel book is fairly mobile, and I saw this rather as something to put up on a wall or shelf than as a book to be handles, and thus wanted something in between a tunnel book and a simple 2D print. So I ordered in some shadow boxes to experiment…
In this first box above there’s a whole landscape of fabric that drapes around her.
From there I went maybe to the other extreme and just collaged the cut out drypoint onto the printed background. The woven impression comes from two overlapping prints, and an area where there’s just one of them, serves as a visual ground she’s standing on here.
From there I developed the idea to collage a bit more of a background landscape for her, indicating a cityscape in her background, but keeping to the fabric theme.
Both the 2nd and 3rd print are only one layer, rather than the full depth of the first with it’s many panels. Yet I feel the shadow box they are living in suits the topic and the collage.
I intent to keep working to this theme. I still have many ideas (and a bunch of half-finished prints), so you’ll probably see more of this series. It would be easier to keep going if I can sell some of them… I am going to list them in my folksy shop in the coming week.
If you would like to purchase one of them now, please contact me directly, they are £50 each, including the frame in the first case, optional frame (for a price reduction of course if you don’t need it) for the 2nd and 3rd. They are signed on the back.
I really like these. Interesting direction to follow.
I am glad you like them! Thanks for your comment. 🙂