Andrea's Refraction Quilt

Hommage To Freddy Moran

"She's A Rainbow"

11" x 14" fused cotton, rubber stamps, tulle

 

I know I am stretching the theme, more like 'refraction by association'! The quilt I was intending to make was based on a photo I took at a Friendly's restaurant a couple of years ago. I was served a large glass of water with a red straw that visually both refracted and distorted the straw, which was fascinating. Even though it was the perfect subject matter for this theme, I really didn't feel like representing it in fabric. My next thought was to do something with a rainbow, as they are an "optical phenomenon caused by refraction" ( Wikipedia ), but I didn't want to work with rainbow imagery either. I'm sure I have mentioned before how intrigued I am with the creative process and for me, one thing usually leads to another. Just after dismissing the rainbow concept, I had a few errands to run and the first song that was playing on the car radio was The Rolling Stones' "She's A Rainbow".  I not only took this as the universe telling me to stick to the rainbow concept, but when I thought of a rainbow representing a person, I immediately thought of Freddy Moran, who sadly died in August at 94. Literally within a 10 minute timespan, I had the beginning of an idea that I couldn't wait to start!

Freddy's quilts were colorful, joyful & whimsical. She loved polka dots, stripes and considered red to be a neutral color. Black and white fabrics became her signature, as I think her large red framed glasses.

I wanted to incorporate a house block ( Freddy's first book was called Freddy's House ) and I made it into a fascinator hat.

I am truly grateful to Linda Hicks for asking me, in 2011, if I would be interested in joining a new art quilt blog started by friends in Texas.  I was most honored that Alice Beard accepted me! Being a member of The Material Mavens has an amazing creative experience that I will miss.

Nedra's Refraction - Blue Velvet

 

I did a bit of research about refraction and learned that blue flowers and animals are very rare in nature. Part of the reason is that there isn’t really a true blue color or pigment and both plants and animals have to perform tricks of the light to appear blue. For plants, blue is achieved by mixing naturally occurring pigments, very much as an artist would mix colors. The most commonly used are the red pigments, called anthocyanins, and whose appearance can be changed by varying acidity. These alterations, combined with reflective light can create some spectacular results: delphiniums, plumbago, bluebells, hydrangeas, morning glories, and cornflowers. 

Instead of pigment mixing or alteration, blue is achieved in many animals by making structures that change the wavelength of light or refracting it. For example, the blue morpho butterfly gets it's color from the fact that its wing scales are shaped in ridges that causes light to bend in such a way that the only wavelength that reflects is blue. If shaped differently the blue color would vanish. I thought the butterfly was stunning and decided to depict it for our refraction challenge. 

The butterfly is made collage style and then attached to the background. I used machine stitching, watercolor pencils and paint to add the identifying marks. The background is a batik which I used to make 3 dimensional leaves that are machined stitched. Sticks were gathered from nature to make the setting for the butterfly. It is machine pieced and bound and attached to a canvas. My husband made the sycamore frame. I very much enjoyed creating this piece for our final reveal.  I compared it to my first reveal and realized how much my creative process has improved!!  I must thank Andrea for inviting me to join this group and for Alice who was our original and fantastic leader!!