Certificate, Module 1, Chapter 1, Colour Wheel

I have used watercolour paints to paint my colour circle. I was a little apprehensive at first, as I am not used to using watercolours, but I am pleased with the results.

Certificate, Module 1

It is amazing to see how many variations of crosses and stars there are around us. Not all the crosses are religion based, not all the stars are the five pointed shape we first think of when hearing "star". They are all around us if we but look and see. A digital camera is a handy device to have ready to capture the images.

Websites are also a useful tool. http://www.gutenberg.org/ was used to find the images of the compass, and www.seiyaku.com has over 100 images of crosses, with their names. http://mcharp.com has many celtic crosses.

I also found gift-wrapping paper, jewellery, fabric,

There are many expressions in common use that employ the words "cross" and "star". Some of them are listed below.

Star: starfish, star anise, star fruit, star-crossed, starry eyed, starring..., seeing stars, Toronto Star (newspaper).

Cross: cross-eyed, crossed fingers, crosswalk, cross (angry), to cross someone, cross the street, cross purposes, "Cross and Blackwell", Red Cross, criss-cross, crossword, cross dressing, hot cross buns. cross over, crossword.

Woven paper and resolved pieces

I was surprised at how tricky (ie "difficult") it was to weave the torn papers. I realized that some of the rocks did not lend themselves to being woven over, but did manage to get some weaving between the two larger rocks.

I made two paper "L's", to form a rectangle or square shape to help me choose and area for further work. I outlined the area chosen for my first resolved piece in black fine marker.

For the second resolved piece, I placed clear plastic over the paper, and then the clean canvas, onto which I painted the pattern of the woven paint and oil pastel papers with Pebeo Setacolour . I then selected three triangular areas. I outlined these areas in white basting stitches to isolate them from what would become the background. I then used various stitched to complete the design.

I tried reproducing the colour using coloured watercolour pencils (Derwent), watercolours, and watercolours over black oil pastel resist.

I then stitched into canvas with DMC cotton floss using woven herringbone (different colours for the various stages of the stitch) and knotted stitch (blending the strands of floss to obtain new colours and variations). I also stitched with hand dyed threads. The results are all so different!

Texture Interpretation

Here you can see my interpretation of the black and white rubbing. I painted the canvas with a diluted solution of India ink and water. I felt that the stitches would not show well against a white background if I were to use white threads. I then made a cartoon from the rubbing, which I placed under the canvas as a guide for stitching. I see I still have a lot to learn about stitching on canvas. This sample is quite warped, as I did not rotate the canvas at the beginning of some the rows. Otherwise, I am quite pleased. Canvas work was well outside my comfort zone.