Mariposa Begins

In my last post I may have mentioned that there are two calls for entry that I would like to enter my work for consideration. The first of the two comes up in November and it is all about butterflies. Now previously I had decided not to rush to make up new pieces just in order to make a submission deadline. But somehow it seemed a shame that I was planning and in fact had done a preliminary drawing for Mariposa already. It would be a shame not to try, right? So above is a segment of the finished drawing for Mariposa. It took me three nights of drawing, erasing, redrawing and adjusting to get the final cartoon. It took only five minutes to have it blown up to size and then.....here we go.

Having an idea of what I want to do in my head, I set out to look for the 'right' background for her and the butterflies. Of course, nothing in my stash was right. So I spent hours combing through online fabric sellers. Nothing.

So I figured I'd have to make it up from what I had lying around. The butterflies are rather bland as they will be made representationally and not fancifully. So the background is a fanciful dance of bright flowers abstracted. Made from my silk doupionis and shantungs, it has a nice sheen to set off the butterflies.



Knowing that this has to be a quick masterpiece, one of the first things I did was contact my friend Gabriele Bullard of Fabrilish. She is the wonderful dyer that I met this summer in Lowell and the creator of the splendid skin fabric in Queen Bee. Asking for specifics, I expected her to say that she had nothing that fit my needs. She went a whole carload better and dyed me up some pieces to choose from according to my expressed needs.

Knowing that pictures do little to translate color to an artist, she mailed me twelve (yes,12) one yard or better pieces for me to choose from (she is in Florida, I in New England). I will mail her back what I do not keep and a check for the balance.

 Here is a little eye candy. 

I want Mariposa's skin to be yellow to yellow-green with shades of violet, blue or pinks to accent. This one is a hot contender.

She had told me about this one on the phone after she finished her dye runs. It seems to have a butterfly already in it.

This is another contender, as I love the yellow, greens going on to the right of the fantastic magenta.

Contender #3 has a great mix of yellows with pinks and violets.

So how does one pick from such amazing beauty. I am liable to keep the whole lot and send her a huge check. All these beauties were dyed on soft gorgeous cotton and she is charging $22.00/yd. A deal in my book!

This is just a small detail of a large piece that I AM buying..... just because. I love the depth and intensity.

So....back to Mariposa. I think the top piece will be the winner because it goes so well. 

If you would like to buy some eye candy too, you can get ahold of Gabriele at: fabrilish@gmail.com. I can say with certainty, "You won't be disappointed!"

I don't know how this is possible, given the extent of my bead and button collection, but I didn't have any butterflies in my stash. So I found some on Etsy and ordered them up. All are delivered but one order. Have you centered your gaze on the fimo beads yet. I just ordered a ton more. I wanted to see how big they were and if they would look OK with the piece. I love them.



So that is about it for now. Next week I will be continuing with the butterflies, one by one. There is a Monarch, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, a Blue Morpho, a Blue Spotted Purple, and an Eastern Tailed Blue. Then I'll be on to Mariposa herself and her green chrysalis hair. I will take a few more progress photos but want to keep some secrets.