Pohutukawa Taonga

I completed my piece in time to exhibit at the Sydney Quilt Show last week.  This is the artist statement:

Pohutukawa Taonga: Gracing the New Zealand coast, pohutukawa flowers and their spectacular blossom are a national taonga (treasure). The stamped Maori words, reminiscent of sheep bale stencils, denote other treasures of my kiwi upbringing: love, family, food, respect, belonging and well-being. (Monoprints, shibori, stamping, beading and hand stitching.)

This piece was different for me both technically and in terms of process.  I tend to work more improvisationally at the design wall rather than planning the design ahead of time.  Also, my preferred MO is freeform piecing so a wholecloth with a shibori panel presented new challenges - there's no "undo" button when you are monoprinting!

As you can see from my work in progress post, I originally monoprinted on white cloth (twice!) but painting to colour in the background didn't seem viable so I did a third monoprint on some of Lisa's turquoise dyed cloth.  Then the bubblewrap printed sea looked all wrong so I did a shibori strip using a bucket as my "pole".

I may still use my preliminary monoprint pieces.  Here's a smaller piece that I have donated to the annual SAQA Benefit Auction.

While I'm at it, I'd like to put in a plug for an exhibition that I'm curating - Beneath the Southern Sky. Entries close on 25 January 2012 so you have plenty of time to work on your piece after you've completed your TT contribution:

Spectacular Bloom in Progress

I've done some monoprinting:

I've photoshopped auditioned some leaves and words (but of course, alphabet stamps don't come in this scale - rats):

And then I did some more monoprinting and bubble-wrapped some water:

My original plan was to paint wash in the white background but now I'm thinking I should have monoprinted onto coloured fabric.  Lisa, I don't suppose you have a 50in length of light turquoise/aqua fabric?

Spectacular Blossom - Statement of Intent

Since our get together in December, I have been mulling over TT ideas but, now I have to submit my Sydney Quilt Show entry form,it's time to FOCUS. So here is the concept design accompanying my entry form - monoprinted pohutukawa blooms with stamps kiwi words and a textured sea that might even incorporate some paua beads if I can avoid it looking too naff. No doubt the design will change considerably but, it's a start...

By the way, I tried out some monoprinting in the BrownSageBlue Twelve by Twelve challenge although I ultimately selected a pieced work for my official contribution.

Here are some practice monoprints on paper: