BLOG 85

This week I have continued to work on the Blue tit wall hanging. I completed the surrounding background first of all, with the aim of getting a smooth and gradual transition from one colour
to another. The colours add depth and interest.

Background

The branch is traced onto baking parchment and worked independently with overlapped horizontal strips. It is then cut to shape.

Branch

I use the second tracing of the bird to build up the plumage. I cut free-form shapes with pinking shears and overlap them slightly on the backing parchment. I iron them gently to stick the pieces together as I go. It is still possible to lift the pieces at this stage if I want to move them to another position.




Plumage


Detail

It is still a very chaotic
process at this stage, with fabric strewn everywhere and tools and
inspirational pictures to hand.

Work in progress

When I am happy with my efforts, I iron the fabric well to fuse all the pieces securely together. Then the bird is peeled off the baking parchment in one piece and it is ready to stick
onto the background when the squares have been fused.

Completed bird

I audition the bird against the background to see how it looks. At this stage I am happy with the results and I now need to prepare the background in order to complete the picture. I draw
a 3” grid of staggered squares onto backing parchment and use this to position
and overlap the squares slightly in straight lines. Then they are fused with an
iron to make the vertical lines. The same grid allows me to fuse the lines together
to construct the background. The bird is dropped on top and any spaces are in-filled
with scraps of colour. The only thing I would like to alter is the tail which I think ought to be darker to stand out
against the foliage.

Positioning