Title: Deep Water
Sold
Year: 2015
Size: 23.75″ x 7.5″ x ~2″
Deep Water was made of various types of yard, ribbon, glass pieces, and glass tiles all mounted on a wood board.
The Story:
Deep Water is the latest in my series of wrapped fibers. This one is wrapped three different kinds of yarn. I added banding of blue iridescent ribbon to provide spacing. To create additional visual interest I added in glass pieces and a large square of gorgeous blue glass tiles.
After creating Deep Forest I’ve tossed around the idea of doing a series of these kinds of pieces. I created Deep Black next. After that I really wanted to create a colorful piece. While I think purple is probably my favorite color, I love working with blues. I had those beautiful blue glass tiles and found that gorgeous ombre blue yarn. Those two things were the inspiration behind the piece.
When I start wrapping the yarn, I don’t have a clear idea of what the piece is going to look like. I just wrap until I think I should transition to something else. I didn’t want the piece to be all yarn but I couldn’t find any twine, hemp, or other such medium in the same color family. I’ve had that spool of iridescent blue ribbon for so many years I don’t even remember why I bought it. It turned out to perfect on this piece and I had just enough to do what I wanted! Once the wrapping is complete, I put a ton of glue on the back. The outer edges are glued down with a very generous amount of hot glue. Just inside the columns of hot glue are columns of E-6000, a slower drying adhesive. I used a small stick to work the E-6000 down to the wood to make sure each fiber was secure. Technically the two adhesives are overkill but my philosophy is ‘better safe than sorry.’
After it the adhesives were dried, I played with the tiles for a long time. I knew I wanted to use them, I just wasn’t sure how. As you can see, I opted for a square. The only problem was that I bought the tiles from a tile shop that had a clearance sale for old samples and broken pieces. This sample was missing a tile. That’s why the center has 4 tiny glass tiles. All the tiles were glued to a thin piece of wood. It was then glued to another piece of wood to raise it off the yarn a bit rather than having them lay totally flat.
While I loved the tiles, the rest of the piece felt a little empty. This is a point where I doubt myself a lot. Part of me worries that I “junk up” my pieces by adding to much. The other part of me feels I never do enough. As you can see I ended up adding the blue glass pieces along the ribbon. I think I found a good balance between too much and too few accents.