Finally Finished

Well it's finally finish. Well almost, I don't have a sleeve on this piece yet because I don't know exactly what to do. I'm thinking I will put a sleeve at the top and another one across the widest center part. Anyone have a suggestion?

It seems that I have been working on this piece forever. I've had at least three week trips away from home since I began and I know that added to the time. However, it does seem that it's taken a long time to get it finished.

The other reason may be that I had a deadline and that always makes me feel that I am being pushed. I have enjoyed the project from start to finished. Come to think of it I've only done one piece that I haven't enjoy making the whole piece.

This idea started out for a challenge that Focus and the Thread Heads art group took on for The Arts Company. The Arts Company is a gallery in downtown Seneca, SC. Warren Carpenter has been very supportive of the arts community in our area and fiber art in particular. We wanted to honor him in this challenge.

Warren is an excellent wood turner, architect, carpenter and his last name happens to be Carpenter. How else would we honor him except to use wood as our theme?

I had several ideas when I started this project and they all started with a tree. The first one I wanted to do I didn't have the knowledge to carry through. I wanted to merge Warren with a whole tree so that Warren appeared to be a ghost shadow behind or within the tree foliage. After the class I took at Arrowmont last week I now know how to accomplish this.

A few years back we had an owl nesting in a hole in one of our trees. That image came to me and I decided that I would do a portrait of Warren and place it in a tree hole. We then made a trip to our friends house on Harbor Island and Ann took me to this beautiful, huge oak with a large hole in the bottom. We took lots of photos and I decided that this would be my tree stump.

My original idea for Warrens portrait was to make his face out of wood grain fabrics. I did so but, I wanted his face to fade into the hole and this portrait was too obvious. I made a second portrait and it was also to obvious. I finally decided to make a portrait with little value between the layers and this worked.

I wanted the tree stump to maintain it's organic shape so chose not to apply it to a background fabric. I also wanted the edges of the tree to keep its rough appearance. I zig zaged the three layers together forming a finished edge.

I've learned a lot making this piece, had fun making it, most of the time, and am fairly happy with the finished product. I guess that's why I do what I do.