The Final Corpse

A fifth and final Exquisite Corpse has arrived home out of our group, so here is the story of how I finished this one off. Here is what the piece looked like when it arrived, almost a cool look just like that, based on the interesting covering-up fabrics the other artists had used. The background fabric is a Crate&Barrel table runner out of a heavy cotton toweling. I was last up, so I got to do legs and feet.

There was a border of a fancy kind of sheer/silky fabric and vertical beading as my clue at the uncovered edge. Obviously the bottom of a skirt right? I placed two pieces of lace to bring the kind of harsh stripes to the background and then some satin for legs and metallic shot cotton for shoes. I thought that fancy fabrics were warranted based on the clue I had going, this figure was obviously "dressed up".

I used Steam a Seam to fuse the shapes down then did a satin stitch around the shapes. I was going for a " kicking up her heels and dancing" kind of look to what the legs and feet were doing.

I thought the shoes needed a bit more of something, so I used a couple of heart charms anchored down with some white glass beads.
The green looked good with the green of the background.

Here's a closer look at one of the feet.

And then I added the word "heart" as the final step.

For more on the Exquisite Corpse project be sure and check out our group blog where more of these great projects can be seen.

Tango Lady

Yet another of the Exquisite Corpse projects has arrived home. This time it is Linda's, you can see the whole figure over at her blog TangoMusings. So this first picture shows my original fabric choices.

I first started in with some heavy satin stitching on the edges of each piece.
But that purple triangle wanted to stay, but it just didn't look right after the stitching. So it was jettisoned in favor of....

Beads! Of course beads, always with the beads. A strange necklace of beads stitched along the neckline.A closeup shot so you can see the bone beads a little better, along with the supporting cast of round glass beads.

Oh, and don't forget to add the words: BELL SWEETLY, this time embroidered on. Made me think of Laverne and her script "L".

For even more Exquisite Corpse action, be sure and check out our group blog.

Documenting Exquisiteness

Here's a little sign in book I made to accompany my Exquisite Corpse on her journey. Some of the other artists added in notes or tied on fibers to the outside of the book. I cut this picture out of a nat'geo ages ago, but never found the right spot for it. Thought this was perfect for this group of artists making this complete figures together, piece by piece. The picture is on top of some torn handmade paper that has gold printing on it.
The book I think was made by painter and fiber artist Marion Barnett aka Artmixter ages ago when we were swapping stuff back and forth.
This mysterious looking card turned out to be an evelope containing a spare...

A spare wing from Jan! She had added the two wings to the shoulder area of my piece. This is really cool, so lacy and airy and sparkly, and I can't wait to think of something to use it on. A one-winged doll perhaps? To go with my Studio Guardian Angel perhaps?

A cool unicorn card with stars ( I love sticky stars too and put them on stuff all the time)

If there is another exquisite corpse, maybe I'll use this book again as there is plenty of room left.

Another Corpse Is Revealed

Another Exquisite Corpse has made it home to its owner, Betty, so I get to reveal what I worked on. I ended up with quite a conundrum, am I really supposed to be making another skirt? Yes, I ended up guessing correctly. It seemed a bit off to be doing hips again, but from the clues that I could gather from the 1/2" left uncovered I thought that the figure had been done up to the waist. (Pshew, I was right!)

Here is what it arrived looking like. White shiny satin with some interesting lumps and bumps already on there and covered up.

I came up with a bubble skirt look using some of my hand-dyed cotton, commercial cottons and batiks, sequin waste, lace and some interesting fibers. I also did a lot of embroidery stitching to give more texture to the entire skirt.

But of course it didn't look done without some beads (a definite trend here with all of my exquisite corpse work).

After the addition of some shiny green beads outlining the "pockets" and some belt height glass beads it looks more like a real skirt.

Here's some beady details.

The word that I chose was SHINY which I embroidered on with my machine in the same color thread as all the other embroidery.

And I collaged a little card for Betty's sign-in book.

The sentence that came out of this one is: Magnificent Angel knowingly see shiny character.

Pretty shiny eh? In the Firefly sense that is.

Go check out our group blog for more Exquisite Corpse action.

A Tail Artist's Heart Became Bounteous Night

I was so thrilled to receive my completed exquisite corpse home this week! Here she is in all her glory.

She began with just a head, and four empty squares outlined in black thread. Part of the game this round was to add words in a certain sequence to hopefully make an interesting poem by the end. The background fabric was a white-on-white print that I'd dyed years ago and never used for anything. I thought it had a lot of movement and interest for a background, and I liked the colors.



This is the face that I created, a self-portrait of sorts (me and my big mouth, and ever present pony tail). Words are: A TAIL
This is the neck/chest that Jan made. How do you like those lacy wings, the breast is dimensional by the way. I really love that the heart is right at the throat chakra, one of my key points that I'm working on (ie expressing myself verbally and clearly). The words are: ARTISTS HEART

This is the torso/waist that Betty made. I love the sequined belt, so pretty and flashy, and if my waist were this small in real life, I would totally be wearing one to call attention to it! The word is: BECAME

This is the hips/upper legs that Joanie made. How about that apron, and jeans, I love how this represents a big part of me being the housewifey type and all. The word is BOUNTEOUS

And finally the lower legs/feet that Linda made, dancing away the time of the night. Isn't that beaded watch and parts a cool addition? The word is: NIGHT

Here is the whole thing (click picture to see it larger). The poem reads:

A Tail Artist's Heart Became Bounteous Night.

I'm considering switching out the "i" in tail for an "l", because then it would wind up being a very descriptive self portrait!

I'm thinking this would be fun to hang on the outside of my studio door so visitors will know who they're going to encounter...

This was a really fun round of this project, I'm glad that I talked myself into participating and can't wait to see the other three completed corpses from my group as well as all the others, which will all be posted in some form or another at Exquisite Corpse Textiles
or at our Flickr Group.

A Corpse Exquisitely Revealed

I'm happy to finally get to share one of the exquisite corpse pieces I've been working on for the last few months. This one has reached its owner, so I can now reveal what I did.
This round we were actually doing figures, each artist starting with a "head" on a long skinny rectangle divided into squares. We are also adding words depending on which section we are working on.
In this picture you can see the 1/2" that I got to go on as my clues. I figured that the yellow bit on the left was the bottom of the arm, and the stripes were the bodice of a garment. So I got this far with a torso/hip section, and thought I was done, but then realized, no, it needed more.
First of all the hand needed to be holding something, and the "belt" needed a bit more oomph. I also had to add the words that are part of the game this time.

I found this turquoise bead in my collection that I thought looked like an egg, I wanted an egg shape to go with the skirt material nesting egg print. The bead is quite flat too, so it fit on the quilt very nicely. I stamped the words with one of my favorite alphabet stamps on some of my hand-dyed cotton, this was then hand-stitched on with orange perle cotton.

I did a lot of decorative stitching on the skirt to add more texture. I think I would wear a skirt that looked like this. I probably wouldn't walk around holding a blue egg. but that's another thing.

I really like this photo a lot, showing all the special bits that I added to the belt, like the Chinese coin and glass beads.

And here is how the whole thing looks. I think this was my very favorite of the pieces I contributed during this round. I'm glad that Joanie likes the finished piece!

A Sunny Exquisite Corpse

Another one of the round two exquisite corpse projects has been revealed, so I'm going to show the part I did on Susan's. Hers was divided up rather differently in pentagon shapes arranged in a flower shape, only meeting up at the center. Each of the spaces had a word, mine was Sun, if I'm remembering correctly.

Susan included green fabric cut in the correct shape to cover up the front and back, so the green you see is three other spaces that have been worked on. She also included quilt batting which made it nice to work on. She's right that it is hard to quilt after there are embellishments added! Here is the initial design I came up with here. I used several cottons as well as some gold velvety upholstery fabric.

Then I added some beading, and was much more satisfied with how the whole thing looks.
A closeup of the beading, with the enormous yellow bead serving as the focal point for the end design.

Go here to see the whole piece completed.

Arlee's Shifting Gears

Hip Hip Hooray, Corpse Mistress Arlee received her round two Exquisite Corpse back!

In round one, it went missing in the postal system, so after all her hard work in organizing all of us, she got zilch/bupkus to show for it. This one turned out spectacularly, mainly due to her super cool design, and chosen color scheme which she ever-so-wisely painted swatches of on the edge of the piece. Wow, brilliant eh?

So go see the whole piece here so you can experience the full-on spectacular results.

Here is how the piece looked when it arrived, non-regular sections, mysterious bits covered up already, and two sections available for me to work on. Note the color scheme paint swatches on the upper left. It was all so crinkly and interestingly textured under the mysterious covers.

The section I chose looked like this before I began. Shapes outlined, some painting already there, see the purple and copper?

Some of the beginning work with just black and purple fabrics.

Before any beading was done. I used a coppery metallic cotton, some black rayon, and purple cotton. The blue parts were painted in with Tsuinienko inks.

At the end, here is how my small part of it looks.

Either way you look at it, still interesting.

Gratuitous closeups of beading follow.