I had a great and terrible time with the creation of this piece. I began the construction before Teal Mushroom Designs was established, so please forgive some of the messy images. I thought that sharing my process could be of use to new free-formers, as I will be going over joining methods, shaping, color selection, etc. At the very least, I hope that this will spread some creative spores! it all started with a little fox...One day I decided to go against all of the rules and go off the grid, so to speak, and try creating an organic image. I started with the face, nose first, and worked my way up and out by any means necessary. To build up the shapes I wanted and not have any gaps or holes I didn't always work "in" the previous stitches. I would work a stitch wherever I could squeeze in my hook, whether it was the side of a stitch, or taking two single strand from two separate stitches. After I completed the head I decided he needed a body. I could just see him curled around himself with his big bushy tail. I drew out the body on a piece of paper and traced the head in the position I wanted it to be in. This gave me an idea of what shapes and sizes I should be focusing on, taking a lot off the guess work out. I made the body as a second piece and then sewed them together with a needle and yarn. I finished him by hand stitching some eyes and defining his hind leg and tail. (I am working on a free-form fox tutorial - Stay tuned!) Another foxI made a sketch before beginning the construction of my second fox for a general idea of where I was going. Like the previous fox, I started with the nose and worked my way up and out to make the face before constructing the body and sewing them together. I used the sketch as a template and colored it in with yarn by placing my project on top to gauge my progress. (This will make more sense in my upcoming Free-form Fox Tutorial.) I used the "Hump Stitch" to outline the foxes to:
Final FoxI decided I needed a third fox that would tie the fox and forest theme together with the psychedelic mandala theme. The fox itself is a face and two paws outlines with a contrasting purple to make them stand out. I began the mandala that he is holding as a separate piece and connected it to his nose on the fifth color change. I continued working the mandala around his face, and worked his hands into the motif the same way. I decided to maker the mandala using five colors;
I felt that this provided a lot of color and contrast without becoming muddled and confused. I used a variety of stitch combinations; popcorn's, scallops, bullion's, anything I could think of to make it fun! The Mandala SpiralAfter completing my foxes I wanted to focus on the psychedelic aspect of my piece. I started by making a large spiral with a long wavy tail. Then I focused on filling in the corners with curved rows of contrasting blues and greens and every stitch combinations in my arsenal to create a mandala effect. I followed that up by including some mandalas in the background. I added a dark and light purple to the background mandalas for definition. Putting it all togetherPutting everything together was one of the more difficult parts of this project, simply for the fact that it was hard to commit to anything! I would recommend having some sort of template to go off of, so you can just lay your pieces directly on it. An old shawl, blanket, shirt, etc. will work great - It's just easier if you have something the exact size and shape you are trying to create. I couldn't find anything the size and shape I wanted for this piece, so I just went for it. I connected the the pieces with a needle and yarn when possible, but there were many places where that would have left unsightly gaps. For these areas I used a small hook to connect them, filling in the gaps as I did so. Then I made a separate top border and began attaching the main pieces to it. finishing touchesI used spirals to finish of the ends of the top border. After I had everything sewn together into the shape I wanted I went back and forth along the bottoms and sides to even everything out, before adding a thick, full, luxurious tri-color fringe. completion aka victory!Here are a few more close ups of the completed project! All in all it took about seven months to complete, not including the times that I set it aside for a month or so.
I hope that you enjoyed seeing my process! Let me know what you think! ~ Mush Love!
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AuthorRachel lives in Utah with her fiance and their two cats, Bumeowski and Vick. Archives
January 2019
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