#1.
KAY
FIELDEN
Auckland, New Zealand
"The Lovely Bones"
by Alice Sebold
International,
2011
The Illustrative Beader:
Beaded Tapestry Competition
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|
KAY
FIELDEN
"The Lovely Bones"
by Alice Sebold
[Please
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After reviewing
the Beaded Tapestry Images, and reading the Artist's write-up, materials
list, and summary of techniques,
VOTE
& EVALUATE
See
the overall Results
When
voting closes 1/14/12, voting logs will be reviewed for any duplicate
or otherwise illegitimate votes (for example, those from the same
IP or email address), and these will be deleted. The on-line votes
will be tallied and used to adjust the original votes of the Panel
of Judges at CBJA, in the selection of a winner. The public's votes
will weigh towards 25% of the final tally in selecting the Winner
and Runner-Up. |
|
Book Cover
Dimensions: 8.46" W by 13.0" H
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"THE LOVELY BONES" by Alice Sebold
BOOK SYNOPSIS |
| The Lovely Bones is the story of a teenage girl, Susie Salmon, who
is raped and murdered. The story is narrated by Susie as she watches
from her heaven as her family and friends struggle to come to terms
with her death. On December 6, 1973, in Norristown, Pennsylvania,
Susie takes a shortcut home from school through a cornfield. A neighbour,
George Harvey, who lives alone and builds dollhouses for a living,
persuades her to enter an underground den he has recently dug in the
cornfield. Once she has entered, he rapes and murders her with a knife
and dismembers her body, putting her remains in a safe, and then dumps
the safe in a sinkhole. Susie's spirit then ascends to her own heaven.
This mystery is not solved for a number of years until the liberty
bell from Susie's charm bracelet is found. |
WHY THIS BOOK? |
I chose "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold for a number
of reasons. The imagery in the book was both powerfully beautiful
and touching in the contrast of the narrator's point of view (Susie
speaking from her heaven) and the stark beauty of where the murder
took place. I have also chosen this book because of its link to New
Zealand through the director of the movie of this book (Peter Jackson).
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HOW WAS THE TITLE CREATED? |
| For the lettering, I used my embroidery skills and transposed the
letters to a separate piece of "stiff stuff" by tracing
on the wrong side of the "stiff stuff" from the embroidery
pattern letters. The letters were then beaded in three separate pieces
and attached to the tapestry with a series of tiny sequins and size
15 crystal seed beads. |
WHAT STRATEGIES DID THE ARTIST USE TO ADD SENSE OF DIMENSIONALITY? |
| To add a sense of dimensionality, I created perspective on the cornfield
image by "tilting" the image in MS Word and then using this
image as a guide for my beaded embroidery. I also placed Susie's heaven
in the background, to create the sense of another world from which
the narration took place. |
WHAT MATERIALS WERE USED? |
I chose to represent the heavens by stretching a layer of beaded
net under-layered by a silk over a double layer of 'stiff stuff' affixed
with tailors tacks to form the background heaven. I then embellished
this with a variety of further seed beads and sequins sources from
many locations, both on the internet and locally in Auckland, New
Zealand.
The cornfield is layered on top of the backing as is the lettering.
I have used a combination of different sized seed beads -- 8, 11,
and 15 seed beads and size 11 delicas -- and sequins to create this
this tapestry.
I started the tapestry by stretching sequined fabric over the tapestry
frame to start the process. |
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WHAT CHOICES WERE INVOLVED IN THE DESIGN PROCESS? |
I have represented Susie's heaven in the background of the cover,
and as suggested in reviews of the book, there is no particular religious
connotation to Susie's heaven, but rather is a place of beauty from
which she witnesses the mystery being solved. I decided to put the
heaven in the background because of the way in which the story was
narrated -- Susie was never present as she narrated no matter how
much she wanted to be (even although she did swap places for a few
days towards the end of the story).
I have only used one clue on the tapestry -- almost as an after throught,
because it was found so late in the story -- the liberty bell charm.
I did not include the more obvious clues like the bones that were
discovered or Susie's dog, Holiday, or any members of her family or
even her best frined in heave. I wanted the imagery of Susie's heaven,
the cornfield and the one clue to tell the story.
In creating this beaded tapestry, I wanted to recreate the sense of
something 'other worldly'. To do this I used mostly "ab"
beads with their shimmer and colour variations. I also wanted the
tapestry to reflect the femininity I felt was present throughout the
story. I have done this by keeping the colours used in the background,
foreground and the lettering harmonious and light rather than dark,
concentrating on aqua blues, pale crystal beads, and pale sequins
in the background and a mix of vibrant colours of greens, purples,
and blues in the foreground. I also wanted to have the letters almost
floating over the heavens.
|
WHAT
WERE THE PRIMARY TECHNIQUES USED? |
| I used a number of techniques including bead embroidery (both structured
and free form) for the cornfield, quilling and free form peyote for
the edge to bring the book cover layers together, and bead embroidery
with a selection of sequins and tiny beads (delicas and size 15 seed
beads) to emboss the heavens. |
HOW WAS THE CARTOON IMAGE TRANSFERRED TO THE CANVAS? |
| I created my impression of the foreground as the cornfield where
much of the story unfolded. I found an image of a North American cornfield
on the internet and then manipulated this with MSWord to create a
three dimensional image. I used this image both in size and dimensionality
to create the cornfield with bead embroidery, with its rows of corn,
and the forest in the background of the cornfield picture. For this
bead embroidery I used a mixture of different sized seed beads and
sequins. I attached the "cornfield" to the tapestry, first
by using a fine silk cord to make the border, then beading over this,
a technique common in Indian beaded embroidery. |
HOW HAS THIS TAPESTRY BEEN PREPARED FOR DISPLAY? |
The backing for this beaded embroidery is a glued sandwich of one
layer of picture framer's card, and one layer of upholstery leather.
The "frame" for my Lovely Bones Tapestry has been beaded
with a variety of seed beads (size 8, 11 and 15) in a variety of techniques.
First, I beaded round the edge with quilling stitch to cover the join
between the front and the back of the tapestry, next I used peyote
stitch to create a border, finally I used free form peyote to create
a sense of a border that was not quite even and one in which there
could still be a mystery lurking.
Hanging Mechanism: There is a beaded chain firmly secured to the sides
of the Tapestry from which it can hang on a picture hook. |
|
KAY FIELDEN
"The Lovely Bones"
by Alice Sebold
[Please
be patient - These pages are graphics intensive and will load slowly]
After reviewing
the Beaded Tapestry Images, and reading the Artist's write-up, materials
list, and summary of techniques,
VOTE
& EVALUATE
See
the overall Results
When voting
closes 1/14/12, voting logs will be reviewed for any duplicate or otherwise
illegitimate votes (for example, those from the same IP or email address),
and these will be deleted. The on-line votes will be tallied and used
to adjust the original votes of the Panel of Judges at CBJA, in the selection
of a winner. The public's votes will weigh towards 25% of the final tally
in selecting the Winner and Runner-Up.
And
consider submitting an entry to our next
The International Illustrative Beader: Beaded Tapestry Competition!
Office Rules and Deadlines To Be Announced
Entries
open to both US and International submissions.
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