shifting column right

After selecting the chocolate brown color that would unify all the elements, I started playing with the design. This was a bottom-up approach. The starting point for this enterprise was the Silvergirl glass bas relief. As this was to be a large piece, I wanted more portraits -- thus were born Sahara and Savannah (this was after my glass rendering of an older woman fractured ). As I was concerned about the total weight of the glass in this piece, the latter two images are smaller than Silvergirl.

From photos of the underlying forms I had carved to make these glass portraits, I created three silk quiltlets, seen in the above photo sans binding. The other element was a montage I created out of the images of the portraits. I printed that on cotton.

So, how to put these together? In the picture above, the elements are all laid out in a matter-of-fact pattern, which struck me as stale. It looked like a gallery with no core -- just an amalgam of disparate elements. Beyond that, the design was highly linear and lacked life. The portraits were life, and consequently this layout was full of discord.

Let's try a new layout:


The columns were shifted to the right, leaving a large chocolate brown area to play with. In this shot, the Sahara quiltlet is finished. Behind these elements are the two blues I had chosen. I placed the glass on white cotton to see how the details would come through in the finished piece.

Progress. At the bottom, you can see that I had printed two colorways of the face montage, and had a choice to make. Oh decisions, decisions...

[Sorry for the skewed photos -- my design wall was on a table under a hanging light. This prevented me from getting good overhead shots.]