I have been working full-on to complete my commission piece,
punctuated with a few ventures to Sounds of South to keep my costuming project moving
forward. The weaving features an
intricate garden scene. The background
is now completed. It is a lush flower
and vegetable garden full of vibrant colors and blooms. Now I’m working on finishing two songbirds
for the weaving intended to be focal points.
They are both warblers and beautiful songbirds, although that decision complicated
the piece. The first warbler I finished
is a cerulean warbler. Cerulean
describes the beautiful blue color of the bird, which has a rich song to
match. When I studied the warbler I
learned that only the male sings. That’s
perfect, I thought, so I named him Dan.
The problem arose when I realized that I needed to find a female warbler
with a beautiful voice too. My choice of
a female Magnolia warbler, based on her colors and feather patterns, failed the
biological accuracy test when it turned out she doesn’t sing. Only a few of the female warblers actually
sing so my choices were limited. Curses! Shouldn’t all warblers sing? After an exhaustive image search I settled on
a the stunning female yellow warbler.
Her coloration will
bring a warm glow to the piece. In
addition to the birds, I’m having a lot of fun with the composition because
there are a lot of family heirlooms incorporated into the piece. I hope it is both aesthetically appealing and
meaningful to the commissioners. I
promise to post a picture of the finished piece after it appears in its new
home.
On the costuming front, the Pippin costumes are moving along
beautifully. Nancy Riggert and Alice
Lindeman have been busy bees, especially for creating, assembling and painting
the armor for the war scene. Did I
mention that there seventy kids in the production? That means seventy chest plates, helmets and
swords. I am incredibly grateful to them
for their hard work while I was off wearing my art fair hat.
I designed the armor patterns, but Nancy and
Alice and other parents traced and cut the chest plates out of reclaimed insulation foam
and carpet under pad. The complementary shields
are cut out of craft foam - leftovers from last year's production of Beauty and the Beast. The pieces
are glued together and painted with silver paint. They also enhanced the shadows of the three
dimensional armor features with black sharpie and added rivets that we created
from the filters of Keurig coffee units.
Thanks Dawn Adams for collecting and thanks Dale for drinking much of
the coffee.
For some variety, we’re also
using the grey caps from pharmaceutical bottles donated by Cook Pharmica to the
Materials for the Arts program at the Recycle Center. Next week I’ll post a picture of the riveted
variety, but for now just admire the shining armor! And the sword blades are done
– seventy, cut from recycled corrugated plastic - thanks Bill!! If you want to see the final production in all its glory, Pippin
will be presented on the final three Saturdays in October.
On the home front, Jacob is finally got to have his ‘friends’
birthday party yesterday. He invited
fifteen of his closest teenager friends—OMG!
Jim and I hid downstairs in the art studio until the pizza came. When it was finally quiet we come up to
survey the damage—the house was still intact—and they were outside playing a
marshmallow-throwing game – all good. I
think my reward for going through the process of cleaning the house and
preparing for the party should be a pie – just sayin’
Until next week, or sometime soon,
Martina Celerin
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment