Button Tidal Wave "Starburst"

 

(Above:  Button Tidal Wave "Starburst".  Framed: 21 3/4" x 25 3/4".  Buttons and beads hand-stitched to a piece of tie-dyed fabric.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I don't know who dyed the background fabric.  I found several pieces of this indigo blue and bright orange material in a thrift shop and couldn't resist buying it.  That was several years ago.  I don't generally buy or use fabric in most of my work (except for polyester stretch velvet!) Yet, I bought every scrap while thinking about the anonymous woman who had to be pleased with the results of her efforts but somehow didn't save it.  Was she simply downsizing her stash?  Did she die?  Did her relatives not appreciate the beauty of this unique fabric?  I'll never know. I'm glad I rescued it because this tidal wave couldn't look better!  Yet, I have no idea what I might do in the future with the rest of the gorgeous fabric.

(Above:  Detail of Button Tidal Wave "Starburst".)

I used all the navy blue, six-hole buttons and several small navy buttons to fill in the area around the button outline of the tidal wave.  After the last one was in place, I stood back and didn't like what I saw.  The tidal wave needed to obscure the dyed background fabric.  I started filling in the spaces between the buttons with colonial knots.  I ran out of the purplish-blue thread but was given a plastic bag filled with plenty of royal blue floss.  As I stitched, I realized that the entire wave didn't need to be filled in.  At the bottom, there's random blue and lilac-colored beads.  The lower right corner isn't filled in at all.  Thus, there is a subtle motion in the colors.

(Above: Button Tidal Wave "Starburst" at an angle.)

This entire piece was actually designed to go into a standard 16" x 20" ornate, silver frame that Steve and I bought at the local thrift shop for a whopping three dollars.  When I started designing it, I had no intention for this piece to be included in my upcoming solo show, Cascades, at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History.  I thought all the dense stitching would "take forever".  Instead, I planned on finishing another, large tidal wave for that show.  I was wrong on both counts!  First, I didn't leave a place for the large tidal wave when installing the work.  Second, I managed to finish this piece for the small place I did leave in the show!