Pat Hardie - Altered Art Studio

Adventures with artquilts, fibres, neckties and 2 very fine flatcoat retrievers - Gypsy & Reo

Sunday, September 06, 2009

I've been blogged again

I've just had a lovely email from Lisa Quintana who checked out my Wedding House. She is very complimentary about my work, but more importantly gives loads more information about Books of Hours, etc. If this topic interests you, I suggest you drop in On Medieval Influences: Observing the Hours and Pat Hardie's work
I should say that I have just returned from a wonderful weekend in Champlain, Quebec where my oldest son and his bride just got married. Despite the fact that it's a family wedding, I still think that it was one of the nicest and most fun wedding I have ever attended putting to rest the panic that I forgot my dress at home (5.5 hours away). Louise, my friend, neighbour, French coach and fashion advisor saved the day and just in time.
Life can now return to normal.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Borders all round I say







Two strategies are available as a last ditch effort to save a piece. Well OK, three if you include filing in the recycle bin. In this case I was happy with the original composition so cropping was not the answer. I had two difficulties with these pieces.


First, both had the dreaded wavey edges. Adding an envelope on the back with foam core inserted certainly solved that problem, but did nothing to address the second problem & what I call their 'lack of presence' when hung on the wall. They looked small and puney.


Adding a heavy weight denim canvas border solved this aspect in my eyes. Only a couched outline of crochet cotton was added to Village Square. However, le Shopping got several additions: additional beige zippers were added to the original composition before the denim border. When playing with the 'what if I added a tie border' I discovered that I liked the unintentional curve of the tie around the top RH corner. The tie tips were intriquing too. This is one tie I didn't rip apart.


I've included the 'before' as well as 'after' photos. Hard to tell what they look like hanging on the wall of course. And if you're really observant, you'll notice that the first photo has some of the embroidery pinned on and not stitched. Also missing other elements. Guess I knew that it would never please me as it was 'cause it appears I never took another picture when all the stitching was done.