Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A Cold and Barren Place/ Winter's Details

January got an early start because I knew I would be flying back to Maryland on Jan 2nd and then Wayne would be coming back from Iraq on the 5th. With 6 weeks of mail, a husband home, and a vacation to spend time together I knew that I would have 2-3 weeks where I would have little or no time to work on my page. I got a decent start on it while I was still in Iowa and then didn't get back to it for at least a couple of weeks.

January started with 2 large stones to go with the picture of the pile of rocks. I put them in first because I wanted to know where I was putting them for the design but realized as I worked that maybe it would have been better to pencil them in and add them at the end. They are a bit heavy and made the page a bit awkward to work on.




I chose the background fabric because it looked like ice cracking on a pond to me, I chose to accentuate that by outlining the edges of the patterns with the Sulky Sliver thread that I used on December's page.

Like the previous months January has cord branches to be couched down. I like that in most of these pieces that the cord branches join the parts of the page together, they help move the eye around the piece.

I used very small star shaped sequins for my flowers and surprisingly enough Wayne was suggesting I use more of them. He liked the way they looked. Wayne is always reminding me that "More is not always Better." I used the wrap around beaded border that I had used for my July page picking up the gold/amber and blue colors of the page. Having a solidly beaded border works really well with a page that doesn't have a lot of other beads on it.

3 comments:

KV said...

Your pages are wonderful as usual, Angela! So glad your husband is back home with you again. Isn't it neat when husbands give their gentle input to our projects?


Kathy V in NM

Robin said...

You seem to observe and record nature with the heart of a poet... like a visual interpretation of Mary Oliver's nature poems! Your thread embroidery embellishments are adding a lovely dimension to your work. I'm such a fan!!! I love all of them, and love seeing them all together... of the new ones, November is my current favorite! Its complexity and textures are just fabulous!!! Makes my day to see all of these pictures and know you're back!!!

Brenda said...

So beautiful, all of them. I am in total awe of your talent and your uniqueness. Thank you so much for sharing your pages and your life with us.