What...How....Why?

The beauty of being a textile artist is that one has ZILLIONS of techniques to play with in the pursuit of creating a work of art. Such choice is overwhelming for my personality type,  so I choose to specialise in one technique....contemporary reverse applique.  Providing myself with the safe boundaries of one discipline liberates me to use the technique creatively, & within the context of that creative space, explore other techniques as well.

I hear you asking....what is contemporary reverse applique?

It is a variation of the reverse applique technique used by the Cuna Indian women of the San Blas Islands, in South America. They create Molas, brightly coloured designs symbolising the myths & stories of their culture, which are stitched into panels to later adorn the blouses they wear.

And how do I do it? Let me show you the basic process...

 I start by choosing a variety of fabrics, which will 'colour' each space of my design.  In this case I am about to make a book cover with a contemporary reverse applique motif on the front. I have selected 7 different fabrics to include.  I layer them with the background choice at the bottom, and the uppermost fabric as the outline choice.

 Having traced my design onto the top layer with a white marking pen, I then sandwich all the layers together & machine sew the design through the whole lot.

Now the fun begins! I cut the fabric away from around the stitching, creating an outline.

I then proceed to cut back the next layer of fabric... and the next....so that fabric is exposed only where I want it to be!

I cut, trim & fray the edges of each fabric until it fulfills my design concept & then I iron it!

The final process is embellishing, which I do with stitch and beading.

I was first introduced to this technique whilst studying art in the UK. Many years later I spent a week developing further skills with contemporary reverse applique artist, Susan Schapira, who was a tutor at a TAFTA Forum in Australia.

What attracted me to it was the fun....the surprise of cutting back the layers.  Even with the planning involved in the design process, there is still a sense of magic & surprise when those layers are snipped away. I love revealing what is hidden & in other parts of the design...concealing those fabric gems beneath!

Contemporary reverse applique is a time consuming process with a high risk of mistake making! For me, those attributes add to it's appeal!