Growing the Garden: Gathering the Seeds

She came to me as a Seed...she floated down ever so gently to arrive and come through my hands. The Garden.

The Garden 庭 Niwa

Gardens or Niwa provided a means of achieving the peace of mind for which rulers so desperately sought during the periods of strife and conflict which marked much of Japan's history.

When some ideas come to me, they can arrive so gently that I may think they were there all along!

This was the case with The Garden. First as planting the seed into the soft earth and then watering and nurturing her in silence to have her sprout and then fully blossom. Everything was already there...patiently waiting.

So many of you know my walk of my art journey. I would say in the last 6-7 years it has a solid devotion in symbolism and has become a walk of the spirit and how I express that through my art.

Gathering of the Seeds

They all start with the body. In this next group that I will be creating will be Black Madonna, The Garden, and Frida (as a full figure).

Seeds

Seeds come to this earth with their blueprint within them. 

They know why they are here and what to do next.

They start in the darkness and then sprout to find the light.

These piece- the body is the seed and the bud starts in the fabric selection to start to create the petals- symbolically speaking.

Buds

I select my fabrics. Cottons and silks.

And as I stand looking at them it becomes very obvious which ones I will use!

The bottom three...

Small Petals emerge.

I quickly sketch her so that she will not drift away to find another artist to bring her to this realm where we live. 

I find for me, a quick sketch keeps the idea in my head but gives me plenty of room to be flexible as I proceed along!

Petals emerge at their own rate.

I draft her costuming and set to work, pulling out other needed supplies, pressing, drawing, sewing. "Watering as necessary."

Fabric

It is laid out in front of me, the smoothness as I run my hand over it speaks of being well-balanced in the vertical and horizontal weaves. Working with the finest of supplies/materials I can purchase set up a pathway to do my best work. Just feeling the quality of the fabric, engages me to create as beautifully as this fabric was woven.

Initially the drafted design- the skirt- is machine sewn together as separate pieces. Later all the be handsewn together to create the full skirt (and jacket).

I am then able to add my signature topstitching to each of the three pieces. I used a variegated thread to add to the happiness of this fabric.

The periwinkle-blue flowers drew me right in and I felt that I needed to add to the gloriousness of them!

So, I reviewed free motion embroidery (on YouTube) got out my presser foot and set to work.

It probably has been twenty years or so since I have last used this and what a joy!!!

Every blue flower was embroidered!

You can see here in the lining, the flowers and also how I create my topstitching design to follow the print of the fabric- sewing around each set of blue flowers.

The Undergarments

As I have created the outer garments with these beautiful fabrics, I desired the under garments to be of the same quality.

I wanted a underskirt of white eyelet and found this vintage eyelet. It is wonderful- you can tell that is is all cotton including the embroidery.

Next I added in a bit of color to connect with the outer skirt. 

I used Procion dyes for natural fabrics. It is a powder to water ratio that determines  your color...and of course I mix my dyes using several colors to get it just right.

Last step was to add the free form embroider to the blue flowers!

Here is a close up of the underskirt as well as the pantaloons made in Japanese cotton with dyes vintage lace edging.

Next Week:
Full Bloom of Niwa- The Garden

Until then-

xoxo Leslie