Part I. How the Idea started.
Part II. Experimenting with colors.
Part III. Beginning of a Silk Mosaic Art Piece

I got a phone call from the Canadian tapestry and textile artist Robb Schinnour that a color rendition of my favorite photograph is now ready, so off I went for another consultation with Robb.

With the help of Maureen Burton, a homestager who has an eye with colors, Robb Schinnour gave me his recommended color scheme. I wanted brilliant colors of orange, red and yellow, and he gave me what I wanted. Here is the proposed sketch.

I must say this is an exciting process. To see the development of an art piece.

Once I’ve made up my mind to have my first piece of textile art commission, I went for a hunt for the photos I want to use. It took me a few days to locate these photos as I searched from boxes to boxes. Finally I managed to find these faded photos and handed them to Robb Schinnour. They seem to look a lot better in my memory, nonetheless, they remain very precious to me, and dear Robb treated my photos with so much care.

Here is the original photo.

This photo is a silhouette, and has no bright colors. So the challenge is how to translate this photo into something brillant and shimmering. I played with the colors using computer rendering and came up with some unusual color combination.

None of these colors look right, as I am limited at what the computer can render. I gave up and simply hand this to the capable hands of Robb Schinnour.

continued….

I have the fortune of meeting a Canadian textile and tapestry artist, Robb Schinnour who has impressed me most with a very unusual type of textile art.    The art is his own invention and it involves using layers of silk wrapped around a cord and attached to a canvas backing. Using a sketch as a guide, the art piece is built up layer by layer, and each layer take approximately one hour to finish. The border will add another three to four hours of work. It is hard to explain, but he has a video piece that explains the process.

What attracted me to this process were two pieces of textile art that are currently hanging in his studio, both of which use the same silk cording technique. The colors were brillant and gave a shimmering 3d dimension.

Immediately, I was transported to a favorite photo I have of my children playing at the beach.   This photo was taken years ago, but it left a big impression on me of being a golden moment in my life – two lovely kids having so much fun.

So I asked Robb Schinnour if he would be willing to help me translate this photo into a piece of textile art.   I could just envision this art hanging on top of my fireplace.

continued. Part II – experimenting with colors.