arlee's square for Elizabeth

Elizabeth's was the first i received to work on in the second round of the Exquisite Corpse Textiles project. The background was a lovely dyed/handpainted/stenciled rust and umber with varying depths of motif. Liiz's colour choice for her design was black. JUST black! At first, i was stumped. How do i delineate areas using only black materials, merge them so they fit the idea and yet make them stand out in areas?????

TEXTURE!!!!



I painted the feet, couched yards and yards of black soutache and eyelash yarn on the body and tail sections, then thought it needed a wee bit more to make it "mine"--even though the owner is Liz:} There were spots where some colour had shown up from her stencilling and painting, so i accented them with a few torn scraps of burgundy velvet and added some shell beads. Yes! I like it :} Liz's theme obviously was Ravens, a common animal totem in several cultures.