Happy New Year!

Can't believe it is 2017!
Time to show off the first finished piece of the season.

Family Tree c2016 Patricia Vivod

This is a small piece for me, only 24x12, the silk is mounted on a canvas stretcher that I covered with felt first, to round off the sharp edges and corners and cushion the silk.

It started out as a scarf that failed to print consistently and the striking rust pattern went a little too far for comfort to use as a wearable so I cut off the portion I liked for mounting. The silk was wrapped around to the back of the frame and stitched to the felt.

The title comes from the trivets at the top of the image. I've been collecting the trees for some years now in two sizes...I've got several. My latest acquisition was found when I was Christmas shopping and has a mark on the back that I don't recall seeing on my other trees. It shows more detail on the front than some of the others too, so I'll have to compare when I get back out to my studio. It's way too cold now to go rummaging around.  So much of what passes for antique is really reproduction, but if it's decorative and will rust for my purposes, who cares.

A problem I often run into when searching for suitable rusting sources is that dealers often use paint or polyurethane to prevent or preserve rust.  More and more people are buying up iron to decorate with. In fact a whole industry has sprung up.  Rust is a natural and beautiful patina...why would anyone want to mess with it?   Leave it alone I say.  Let the buyer decide.

One of the trees didn't print as well as the others--design wise I love the varied effect, but the color glitch could be caused by any number of problems including having vestiges of some polyurethane on the surface that I failed to remove.  My trees all look rusty but there might be a patina building up that makes it difficult to get a decent print.  I may need to do some wire brushing ahead of any new work.

This piece is in an exhibit and for sale at The Edwardsville Arts Center through Feburary 3, 2017.