Sunday, November 5, 2017

Mt Fuji

The challenge in my Fiber Exploration Group is Japanese.  Anything Japanese.

Mt Fuji is one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains.  Fuji is Japan's tallest mountain at 12,389 feet and is an active volcano.

Fuji has been a source of inspiration for poets and artists for centuries because of its symmetrical slopes and for  months of the year, its breathtaking snow capped peak. 

Since Mt Fuji is a well recognized symbol of Japan, and the task was to do something Japanese, it was crying for me to interpret a famous Mt. Fuji painting.

Called Fuji Mountains in Clear Weather, this is a wood block print by Hokusai done  in 1831.  It is part of the 36 Views of Mt. Fuji series.








 This is the streaks of snow still in the crevasses of the lava cone.  













To get this effect I used a bleach pen and drew the lines on the orange fabric. 









The back of the cone shape already has the fusible interfacing adhered to it.  I wasn't sure how that would work.  I let the bleach sit for a while, then took the paper off and rinsed the bleach out in the bathroom sink.

It looks pretty good. 



 I got the green slopes attached to the top of the cone.  Actually it is just sitting here right now. 

During the flood, I lost my teflon pressing sheet and have not replace it yet.  Of course, now I need one and don't have it.




The blue background is part of a long piece I wrapped on a pipe and wrapped with twine.  I let it sit in a shallow pan of blue dye.  Procion.












I finished the piece by free motion quilting on my new machine.  Not without a learning curve.  I found it has a Japanese alphabet so I embroidered some random characters on that white strip.  Not without its own learning curve.  I actually embroidered it with the paper on top, so what you see are the backs of the lettering.  Like I said, learning curve.

It is laid on a black felt back.  That is the natural edge of the original dyed piece. 

It was a bit of artistic license.  I liked it, so it stayed!



7 comments:

  1. You did an amazing job. What a great job of envisioning the project! I love it and hope everyone in the group loves it foo.

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  2. Great explanation of techniques. I like your raw edge, too.

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  3. You can stitch in Japanese? How cool is that! You can use parchment paper instead of the pressing sheet. That's what I always use and it works like a charm.
    I love how this came out.

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  4. Your machine has to be some kind of genius to be stitching in Japanese. Is it that you can change the language or do you just press a Japanese button? I want to know more, like what your Japanese letters say...
    I recently read an article on Mt. Fuji. It's amazing how many people climb annually for some celebration. I'll have to look it up (maybe in NatGeo) and read it again. Your piece works wonderfully well. It seems that every piece of fabric employs a different technique, which definitely adds interest and depth to the piece.

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  5. Great interpretation of Red Fuji! I wish my machine had the Japanese alphabet on it!

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