Oh dear, now what! - MaryEllen Sax - "Wild Flowers"

FINISHED PIECE

The challenge here was to remake a piece we had, but didn't think quite worked.

Below is my original piece.

BORING!

I was inspired by a personal photo, but I was really just playing around and the piece ended up being a bit dull.

I liked the hand stitching and I added paint, lace bits and some other interesting fabrics, but it needed something.

I decided to look for a NEW technique, something different to try. I had been watching several different You Tube videos on the art of Momigami which is a Japanese method of kneading paper into a fabric. This seemed like an interesting idea to experiment with.

The videos I watched suggested several different options for medium (I believe traditional Momigami uses a type of starch). I used grapeseed oil. I also let my pieces dye on a rack for over a week before using. 

All three layers here are pieces of Momigami.  The brown was a brown paper bag, the yellow was tissue paper and the picture was my photo printed out on copy paper.

I would suggest anyone interested on this technique should check out the many videos on the subject.

 For me the Momigami was fun and nice results: 

The colors are great.  The paper really does drape like fabric, and I did sew on it.

The thing I found problematic is even after a week the pieces are still very greasy. I would say you need to use with caution as that grease will transfer to your work.

A better use may be something like art journals.

My finished piece is 16.5" X 11.5"

I also added wood beads and jute twine to finish my piece.

Hope you enjoyed my piece. Have a wonderful day.

MaryEllen