My Exquisite Corpse completed its rounds quite awhile before the deadline of December 20th. When it arrived I hadn't even opened Carol's. My work space was piled high with elfish duties of making and wrapping presents. I cleared a space, filled in the last section on Carol's corpse, packed hers up, and then excitedly tore into my package to reveal this piece of fabulousness.
Each talented corpse mistress in my group completed a section without having a clue to what was previously done. So those resulting alternate patterns of warm and cool hues amazes me.
The way this interesting round robin project of international scope worked is that a basic design was created by each of the six participants in three groups. I was in group two.
I transferred mine to a background cloth and divided it into six sections and worked the first one. It is hand appliqued using a freezer paper method. Meaning each piece was transferred to and then cut out of the FP with an added narrow seam allowance which was then turned under before each paper covered shape was blind stitched into place on my chosen background fabric. I completely covered every bit of my worked section and sent it out into the world.
Included was a note to use full-strength colors ... meaning no pastels, nor muted tones. I also stated my preference that the piece be quilted after it returns to me. I requested that each name be written on the fabric covering a worked section (those have since been pieced together as the backing).
Carol in Wales was the first to get it. I'm sure she figured out that the section she chose was the other half of a face. The pink area is hand-dyed cheese cloth while the blue is machine felting. And then there is painted tyvec and newsprint as well as beads.
It was then sent onto Nancy in Canada who filled the bottom right section with wild colors and pieced it together with lots of texture.
Betty in Alabama was the last one to work on it and hand appliqued silks and crystalline fabric in the bottom left section. Her points could not be any sharper and the scattered beads sparkle on that rich, deep, shining blue.
In the meantime, Anne Marie of Canada was the third corpse mistress to add her talent to the upper right section. She suspected my design was a variation of a NY Beauty. She was a little surprised by that after checking out my blog and not seeing much traditional work. So she decided that my "traditional" block wasn't going to be very traditional, if she had anything to say about it. She even included orange snake skin pleather on the point pieces.
Paula in Maine painted the upper left section and then filled in the shapes with beads ... and then more beads to create radiating patterns.
Included in my package were six postcards from my 100 Lake Series with instructions for each corpse mistress to select one as a thank you for contributing to my piece. The one that came back with the completed corpse is my memory/reminder of the experience for this second round.
One of the postcards from this mini series of eight was an exchange with Susan Lenz and is part of her Cyber Fyber exhibition that opens January 8th. Susan created a blog about the exhibition
here.
There is also a blog about all the
Exquisite Corpse Textiles from the first round as well as posts about this second one as each corpse is revealed.
Now to get busy and add my finishing touches to this wonderful piece.
Here's to cyber friendships! Thanks to all who have left comments and sent emails in response to mine and to all who have "played" with me through exchanges, gifts, and round robins. Cheers!
