Colour Theory

I'm back with another journal cover to share.  I seem to be fixated on these, and the eucalypt at the moment, but for me they are something I see every day, and I never get tired of the inspiration they provide.  Our Sumptuous Surfaces online class is dealing with colour theory at the moment, and despite never having done much of this, I find it fascinating, and can now understand why I know some colours just look good together............LOL........  

I used this part of the class to quickly stitch up a gum leaf sprig using a few different layers, not much stitching, but different 'fabrics' for my leaves, and some dimensional stitching for the flowers.  The gum leaves are Hanah overdyed bias silk ribbon, fused together with Mistyfuse, cut into shapes, and then fused to the background.  This product allows pieces to be adhered to a background, yet everything stays soft enough to stitch through easily.  I've used bronze sequin waste to give the impression of 'chewed' leaves.  

The actual cover itself has been made using Abaca Tissue.  It is often sold under the name of Tissuetex, dyed ready for your use.  I purchased some from http://www.thethreadstudio.com/catalogue/catfront.htm  Abaca tissue is extremely strong, despite feeling a lot like paper.  It can be painted, stitched, crumpled, you name it.  I didn't purchase this colour especially for the project, but had it on hand.  I crumpled it several times before fusing it to some beige wool felt [again with Mistyfuse].  I did make crinkles in it before I actually used the iron to set the fusible webbing.  Prior to stitching on the postcard sized embroidery, I fused the wool felt/abaca fabric onto pelmet vilene.  It makes for a much firmer fabric all round [do you get the idea that I like fusible products.........LOL].  The postcard was attached using satin stitch in a green multi metallic thread.  The lining fabric was one of my red/grey hand dyes, not the best match, but not the worst either [you can just see a little of it set into the side of the postcard].

After all the stitching was completed, I gently rubbed some Rose Gold 'Treasure Gold' into the surface of the Abaca, which gives it a rosy glow.  It looks and feels a little like leather.  


This was just a very quick way to produce another cover, using colour combinations I like.  I need to make another small project now with much more 'stitching' on it, and haven't quite decided on a theme or if it will be used as a postcard, or as a decorative addition to something else.  We have one more class lesson on Wednesday, and that will be it.  

Thank you all for taking such a keen interest in what this is all about.