What I read about the structure of what’s inside these intriguing landforms took my attention. So, I thought another in this series would feature the layered limestone and conglomerates using fine pieced strips in beige-cream/off white tones, surrounded by a solid band of brown to signify the outer and inner colours determined by the structure. This outer colour is due to the tiny spaces in the stone being colonised by cyanobacteria which give earthy browns and golds to the outer few millimetres, and this deepens when the rocks have been rained upon. Inside the rock remains white and nearly white/cream tones.
The time consuming work was the piecing. so when I’d done enough, I set the shapes I’d cut into the solid colours, darker to go to the front/nearest the viewer so to speak, thinking some sense of depth might result, and in a primitive way I think that’s been successful. You’d think I’d have been able to work out that the black and white spotted fabric for the background just is not IT, though –
but, having just written that I am having second thoughts…..
- I am not sure now if I will finish this off and quilt it etc, and it might remain a sample or study for something larger.
- Then again, I could take the shapes out and re-set them in black – and might sometime when I’ve thought more about it.
- I’m not sure about more cream piecing – but then again,
- I could do cream cut-out shapes with machine stitched bands on them signifying the layered structure….
However – and here’s the reminder I periodically give about the value of making samples and small studies: this leads the creative mind onward, and I now have in mind something, perhaps two pieces, of much larger work. After all, the BungleBungles are massive …. so with this in mind, there’s a considerable piecing I feel I will need to do now. So some of this b/w dots plus some b/w print of work by a prominent Aboriginal artist designer, printmaker and painter, the late Jimmy Pike have gone into a strong bath of black tea to tone down the white:
Many of Jimmy Pike’s beautiful linear patterns were reproduced on commercially available fabric and used in clothing principally I think under the Desert Designs label – having been away from Aus for so long I’m not sure what’s now available now, though.
