Buttons&Beads&Quilts!

I have always been fascinated by sea life. The vast variety of forms and variations beneath the waves is very different from what is found above land. Unfortunately, while I’m a good swimmer, I’m an abysmal snorkeler, and have never been scuba diving. Therefore, what I’ve seen is limited to either documentaries or aquariums, like the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD. There, I press my face against the thick glass and imagine what it would be like to live in a world of such rich colors and shapes.

However, one summer, I was fortunate enough to go down in a mini-sub off the coast of Barbados. The small craft seated about 50 people, all facing outwards towards large picture windows. The clear, azure water of the Caribbean allows shafts of sunlight to pierce through the water to a depth of about 15 feet, or 5 meters, as if the beams of light were golden fingers. As we got further from shore, more and more different kinds of plants and animals appeared. The small motor sent undulating waves through the sea weed and caused them to slowly bend away and then back into place as the sub went by. At an appointed place, a diver with oxygen tanks appeared with a bag of Puppy Chow, which caused even more fish and creatures to appear, eagerly waiting to show themselves for the tourists in exchange for being fed. They obviously knew where the feeding station was, as there were many that seemed to be hanging around, waiting for the next sub to come by.

In the detail shot on the left, you can see some of the torn pieces of netting that I couched down to the surface to simulate fishing nets of various thicknesses. In the upper middle third, you can see a metal starfish button. While it had a shank on it, I can’t imagine it going easily through a buttonhole, but it worked perfectly as an embellishment for this piece. A number of other buttons were used to simulate barnacles and other outcroppings on coral. White mother-of-pearl circles were tacked down all over the piece to give the surface shine and shimmer.

In this detail shot on the left, sheer gold ribbon was used to mimic the shafts of sunlight that I saw from the mini-sub. Their lengths highlight many of the treasures that have been caught up in the seaweeds along the bottom of the piece, just as they would along the ocean floor. In this second photo, you can also see how the mottled black on blue fabric, cut in circles, is repeated throughout the composition. These circles could be interpreted as bubbles or some of the checkered backs of sea turtles that I saw. Overlays of shimmering organza mask the sections that they cover, just as layers of gelatinous  flotsam do in the actual ocean. There are flat teal colored pieces of glass that were sewn down to simulate broken glass tumbled about and polished by the sand and waves, back when most bottles were made of glass.

This piece was created back before I covered most of the backgrounds with beads. There’s quite a wealth of hand quilting, which adds another subtle layer in the background. Rich and complicated arrangements of diverse materials help to re-create the scenes that I saw from that mini-sub over twenty years ago. The experience is one of those memories that is permanently fixed in my memory.

 To see more of my art work, please visit my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com .