"Memento Mori-Stampi"

And finally the fourth quilt this year and challenge completed!
So this one is a little different to the others, in so much as the others where natural forms, shells and daisies. This one is made from "postage stamps" or more importantly stamps from my own collection.
I think it was probably one of the first collections I started as a child, I loved the colours and patterns of the stamps. I was given my pocket money and spent it all on little packets of stamps from different countries. I loved trying to find out where the countries were in the atlas and can remember having particular trouble locating Yemen. I still have them all in five folders, very dusty but lovely to look at!

So here is number four:

"Momento Mori-Stampi"

Background is hand dyed cotton. The skull is photo transferred images of some of the Irish Stamps    (for the year that's in it, centenary of the 1916 Rising, very big event in Irish History) from my old collection.

"Memento Mori- Bellis Perennis"

Daisies of all shapes and sizes but particularly the small kind found in gardens with the pretty pink edges on the petals have always been my favourite flowers.

Flower symbolism associated with the daisy is purity, innocence, loyal love, beauty, patience and simplicity! Daisies are often depicted in meadows in medieval pantings and are believed to be over 4,000 years old.

I can remember sitting as a child and making daisy chains and creating necklaces and crowns many times. I still love the flower and once picked a bunch of Dog Daisies and didn't realise until the following morning where the name came. I walked into my kitchen to the smell of smelly wet dog, needless to say they haven't appeared inside again!

Had a bit of a fascination with Ladybugs as a child too, used to love to let them walk across my hands until one pooped on me!

So here's number three:

"Momento Mori- Bellis Perennis"

"Memento Mori- She Sells Sea Shells 2"

As usual when I start preparing materials for a quilt I get a bit carried away and end up with enough fabrics for ten quilts!! I had such fun choosing and preparing the shells for the first piece that I still have loads left over. 

Anyhows shells have also been a part of my adult life and I have wonderful memories or collecting shells on a beach in Kerry year after year with my kids when they were tiny tots. My daughter Isobel  made a big mosaic mirror for her room with them and there's still at least two buckets of them sitting in my studio, somewhere!

So here's number two:

"Momento Mori- She Sells Sea Shells 2"

The background fabric is hand dyed cotton. The shells were put onto fabric using a photo transfer method. The skull was assembled and stitched to a black background first, then cut out and appliquéd to the background fabric. Machine quilted using a YLI variegated thread.

"Memento Mori- She Sells Sea Shells...."

It's only been this week that I have had a chance to get stuck into my "Treasured Memories " pieces.
I have had the research and some of the prep work done for ages but lots of other projects have kept me very busy these last few months!

So here's my first piece:

                                            "Momento Mori - She Sells Sea Shells....."

Momento Mori (we all must die) is a medieval christian practice of keeping a reminder of death near, not as a morbid act but to remember that we all must die and so should live life to the full. 

I have been using the skull image as a theme in my work for several years now and still find new ways of exploring and playing with it. I'm a huge horror and science fiction fan and ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer brought vampire and horror into the mainstream I don't feel like such a weirdo working with this sort of image!

I spent a lot of time by the sea as a child and have lots of memories of collecting sea shells and bits and piece on the sand.

I found old drawings of shells and used a photo transfer method to put them onto fabric. They were then stitched onto a black fabric and then appliquéd onto a background and quilted.

Nature Abstracted

Talk about cutting it close!!
Only a few hours to go but I did it, finally got my last three pieces finished and ready to post.
Don't know where the year has gone!

Number two is "Cloud Monsters".
The central image was played with in Photoshop and transferred to fabric using a medium called "Image Maker". The border is hand marbled fabric, an ancient craft that I love to use on fabric.

The theme "Abstracted Nature" is wonderful, I adore the patterns found in nature. I think we have probably all watched clouds passing and seen all sorts of crazy animals and images flow across the sky!

And here's a detail:

Number three is "Momento Mori 1"

Here I'm back to the use of skulls, this one is created using images from nature, combined to make the skull shape. The images are again a photo transfer technique, a new one that I've been playing with quiet a lot lately. The quilting was done onto white fabric and then painted with intense blocks to add the colour.

and here's a detail:

"Momento Mori is latin for "remember we all must die", and was a medieval theory and practice of reflecting on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthy life and the transient nature of all earthy goods and pursuits".

Skull imagery fascinates me and reminds me to appreciate what I have and make the most of my time.

And the final piece is "Momento Mori 2"

and the close up

Now that these are done I can get working on next years, one of which is started! 

Momento Flori- Taiwan

Have a small bit of an obsession with skulls and Memento Mori (Latin translation: "remember (that you have) to die"). 
Memento Mori is the medieval Latin theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. It is related to the ars moriendi ("The Art of Dying") and related literature. Memento Mori has been an important part of ascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character, by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and turning the attention towards the immortality of the soul and the afterlife.

I think previous generations had a healthier approach to death than we have! We hide from it and try to evade, when it's as necessary as breathing and something we all face. As a society we elevate the young and beautiful and marginalise the older and wiser. Our arrogance and greed is destroying the air we breath.

In art, memento mori are artistic or symbolic reminders of mortality.

Growing up in a strong Catholic country, I was surrounded by religious symbolism and paraphernalia which can have a very strong effect.

I'm also a country girl at heart and a highly sensitive introvert, I'm happiest when out in nature and away from crowds. The natural world nourishes the soul and I'm always mesmerised by the beauty and design of the natural world.

It makes me so sad to see what we are doing to the wonderful planet, I fear for what my children will have to face.

So my Taiwan piece is "Memento Flori" a reflection of the beauty of the natural world and the transient nature of all things.

I used a new photo transfer method that I'm playing with and used images of natural forms from Ernst Haeckel's "Art Forms in Nature" which I photoshopped.

Had great fu playing around and building up the design!

I also looked at the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, one of my favourites.

Finally got round to stitching!

Close up

Some colour added.

Final version ready to go!

Paula Rafferty first A2 Quilt of 2015

Thrilled to be a member of the group and delighted to be able to show the first of four A4 quilts for the "Abstracted Nature" theme.
Feel like I'm cheating a little as I already had this started for another project but decided to use it for this group.

This is an image of the earth from the air, played with in photoshop and printed on a large format printer.
I love the secondary images that are created when the original is flipped and repeated.
I see all sorts of crazy stuff in it so didn't want to quilt to densely to allow the viewer to explore some of the patterns and shapes.

Hope someone else can see the crazy faces or I'm in real trouble!!

Heres a close up;

For the next one I'm using cloud formations.