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22 ½" x 22"
When three things come together in my creative life-Pow!-Zap!-Zowie!-things begin to happen. In this case, way more then three things came together, so this piece practically made itself in record time:
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I come from a long line of metal workers. My great-grandfather made lamps for horse- drawn carriages in Germany before he came to America to seek his fortune. Here he did custom work from sheet metal. I grew up in an apartment above the family’s sheet metal shop in Chicago. (This might explain my interest in rust dyeing) |
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I had just finished a quilt for my brother that was made to match his copper-patina- colored custom-painted headboard. I love finding ways to use up the little bits of leftover fabrics that are already cut the same size. I decided to make the “Chinese Coins” pattern because the colors reminded me of coins. Copper and bronze, along with the rock colors obsidian and granite with metallic highlights of gold and silver were used in the quilt. That got me thinking that coins come from the earth. |
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I had purchased some old office rubber stamps at a garage sale. One of them said, “These Coins Checked by a Professional Numismatist”; the other said “Uncirculated.” I had planned to use these stamps to create a printed pattern on the fabric strips that appear between the stacks of Chinese Coins. I was pleased with some of my samples but was not looking forward to doing that much stamping. |
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I noticed that some of the Rust-Tex Image Transfer fabrics looked like geological strata with white veins running through them. This would provide the perfect place for me to stamp the sashing fabric without having to do so much work. It would reinforce the idea that the metal for coins comes from the earth. Using a copper-patina-color pigment stamp pad, I was able to add a color to the Rust-Tex fabric that made it work with the commercial fabrics, creating a strong composition that looks less like stacks of coins and more like geological core drillings. |
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I found antique Chinese coins at a bead store. |
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Free-motion machine-quilted with polyester monofilament thread. |
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Embellished with crinoids and other fossils, seed beads, rock chips, shell buttons, Chinese coins, (real and reproduction), and various beads that echo the flat round coin shape. |
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