Explorations 10: Puckering: A Scathing Self-Critique

Explorations 10:  Puckering:  A Scathing Self-Critique

I'm learning how to do something, and as usual, learning the hard way.  With a lot of trial and error. Basically, I'm trying to make a piece of painted silk look like a band of foam advancing across a beach at low tide.  I've been at it for days.  Today I worked on my third effort.  Right now I'm going to articulate what's working and what's not.

In this first effort (heavy silk crepe de chine, quilt batting), the lines are too evenly spaced:

In this second effort (lightweight raw silk, no quilt batting), I tried for less even spacing, but the result is haphazard looking and even a little ugly...

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...except that I like the effect of white and iridescent threads, zigzagged along the edge, looking like the raised lip of the leading edge of the foam.

In today's third effort (silk chiffon, no quilt batting), I'm onto something.  This photo below shows the silk chiffon after having been stitched but before the steam was applied to the Fabric Magic:

 This photo shows the same piece after the Fabric Magic had been exposed to steam:

 Closeup of after Fabric Magic:

 What worked and what didn't:

• I'm getting much better at making the rows of stitching look more irregular, but they still have to be in parallel bands
• The rows sewn in lazy curves, using straight stitch, such as those on the lower left and upper right, work well and look natural, as long as they're not too regular
• Zigzags don't work well in a color that contrasts with the background, such as gold.
• Zigzags do work well when sewn in the same color as the background, such as white, and where the puckering mimics the rounded edge of the advancing foam
• This piece is way too crumpled and puckery, more so than in the real thing.  Solution:  If I do go with silk chiffon, as in this example, I should use quilt batting between the silk and the Fabric Magic. 

What else?  I have one more piece of silk (crepe de chine but not heavy weight) which has been painted and is ready to use for practice.  I'll do that tomorrow, and I'll

• Layer it with quilt batting
• Avoid zigzags, especially in colors that contrast with the background, but use zigzags in the same color as the background (white and iridescent) when showing the leading edge of the foam
• Concentrate on straight stitches in lazy rows, keeping them more or less parallel without being too regular

Wish me luck.