14" x 14"

The story of "Peripheral Vision"

My Canvas Collage style develops best when I just play with fabric and watch what happens.

Peripheral Vision is my fantasy of a bird's eye view from it's decorative habitat. I began with a beautiful Japanese style fabric which was printed with birds and flowers. I wondered how Japanese birds and flowers would be able to combine with the huge phototransfer of a Jamaican landscape. After an hour and a half of slow meticulous cutting and placing the combination worked very well!

I "played" with the fabric by rearranging the branches of flowers and the bird and created an unusual border across the top of the picture only. Then I attached these pieces to the phototransfer by couching on top of the fabric outlines with metallic braid and velour. The fine decorative stitches were done with DMC cotton floss, chosen for the color match to the fabric. I enjoy the blending of fabric and stitching that makes one fade into the other. There's lots for the eye to "play" with, lots to see even in every corner. "It's about flow. The piece must flow" I told myself as I stitched and as I allowed the colors to perform.

I experimented with depth perception, changing the pace from a usual flat needlepoint picture. When I created that upper border I asked myself, "why?" Later I found out that the border came forward as the mustard basketweave stitch receded. The bird's body, padded for effect, allowed the bird to come forward and be seen among the foliage.

The first very important lesson that I learned from doing this piece is ....don't use any more very large phototransfers as the base for a picture. The problem is that it puckers and bulges and has a mind of its own. I had to convince myself that the puckers were water ripples. Quilters are a lot more forgiving of this appearance. Needlepointers like to have a smooth, taut finished surface.

The second lesson that I learned is about compromise and letting the piece have the final say. The third lesson is to look at what worked well and don't focus on what didn't work. Just don't repeat it another time.

I continue to experiment and play with fabric and threads. The images of the piece unfold in their own time while the piece is in progress. It is not necessary to have the complete vision in place as the piece is developing.

>Click within the stitchings to see the detail images: