Friday, March 15, 2013

Nedra's Communication - "Love Letters"





After a conversation, with Andrea, about the wealth of possibilities this theme presented, I began thinking of several methods of communication; but I kept focusing on one - feather tipped pens.  Images came to mind of handwritten letters with the curved feathers of a pen superimposed on them.  Hmmm, this could be interesting.  I thought of my reading of the biography of John Adams, I was moved by the correspondence of Abigail and John during their many years of separation while she remained in Massachusetts and he journeyed to Philadelphia, Paris and Amsterdam.  Their love endured the many miles between them and was so evident in their correspondence.   Feather tipped pens were used to write those letters!!!!  Aha!!  I knew this was what I wanted to do.  Screen printing seemed to be the best method for the images I imagined , and so I went to my friend most skilled in this for a lesson, Andrea!!

I found the letter (from the Massachusetts Historical Society Archives) and the pictures via a Google search.  In order to get the shape of the pen just as I wanted, I had to sketch it myself.   Black and white copies of all were made and off to Andrea's I went.  She patiently walked me through the process and we made the screens using a thermofax machine.  I learned the toner in the photocopy “etches” the special plastic screen and thus allows you to screen print the images.  Now at home on my own, I pulled the images of the letter and pictures with a black acrylic paint on gray cotton sateen.   Although, I achieved the look I wanted, it seemed dull with only the black printed onto the gray background.  I quickly realized that more contrast was needed. I purchased a black silk which I used to frame the pictures and a dark gray silk which formed the border and provided a nice frame for it all and the needed contrast.

I stitched the framed pictures onto the bordered letter.  I then ironed a fusible to the back of the sateen with the screen printed feather and then carefully cut it out to avoid snipping off any of the feather sections.  I fashioned the inkwell from black silk and ironed fusing to it and cut it out.  I then placed those on top of the letter and when satisfied with placement, I fused those down.  I covered the entire piece in a navy tulle and wrapped all to the back of the peltex batting and fused in place.  I covered the back with a fabric piece the same size. Now for some quilting.  I stitched in the ditch around the letter and pictures and carefully around the feather.  Machine quilted feathers seemed appropriate so I stitched those using a pattern I drew on golden threads paper.   For a finishing touch, a few black beads were stitched on the feather tips which you can see a little better in the picture below.


12 comments:

  1. How cool is that? I just commented on Andrea's piece and said that handwriting is a lost art.

    Not many people have good handwriting anymore.
    Beautiful piece.

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  2. Just beautiful, Nedra! And I loved the back story, about your seeking lessons from Andrea and then describing the silk screen process. I liked, too, all the details about construction. When Mavens give the rest of us those details, we can all learn so much. Your quilting is outstanding. Thanks for the neat close-up, too. And yours, mine, and Andrea's could well be hung together somewhere as companion pieces, with our focus on letters!

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  3. I love this piece and its beautiful details. I wish I had been in the studio with you and Andrea! Good research into history and technique. Brava!

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  4. Nedra, this is really beautiful, and I loved reading the many steps you went through to achieve such an accomplished piece!

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  5. What a lovely silk screen quilt, Nedra. I love the way you collected your sources and displaced them in this quilt. What a great resource you have there in Boston for all things historical. Thanks for sharing the story of the elements and your construction technique. Just lovely!

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  6. Nedra - Love how you limited your color palate. I think it really enforces the historical look of the piece. And the way you integrated the stitching and the silk screening. What a lovely piece.

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  7. I love your feathers and pen. I have been reading about thermofax and want to try it.

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  8. Love how you put your quilt together! Even though I knew what the screened imagery would look like, I had no idea how you would arrange, add to ( like the black frames around the portraits ) quilt and embellishment.

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  9. Simple, understated elegance. Much thought and your careful application of techniques truly resulted in a beautiful art quilt. Nicely done, and you get A+++ for writing your detailed process! :)

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  10. I love the way you put this together with such wonderful attention to details. Thank you for sharing the steps with us - very elegant with a clear message.

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  11. What a lovely story and quilt. Your quilt depicts the romance of writing and their love. I'm glad you gave us the info on what went into making your quilt. I would love to see this in person.

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  12. Hi Nedra - Your lovely quilt made me sigh.... History, romance, nostalgia, current technology, and your much detailed narrative of the processes you used to achieve this beautiful piece. You did a great job .....Congratulations ! !

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