The picture looks better with the newly knitted flowers in place. I had to bump off the leftmost flower (see photo in the last post) to make room for the others. It was useful elsewhere. I think it is funny how my mind made up how all the flowers were oriented, and they don’t look at all like the flowers in the photo. Minds often do not remember very well what eyes see.
In the next photo, the flowers are sewn on. I scrutinized the photo before sewing them in place. Still, I had to take out and resew some, because I would shift them out of place while sewing. Doing this is such a good mind-eye exercise. I have to work very hard to see what is there, instead of what I think is there, or what I want to be there.
Drawing teachers have a number of exercises designed to make students see with their eyes instead of their minds. A couple of really good books on this subject are: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and Drawing on the Artist Within, by Betty Edwards. They are for drawing, but the principles apply to any kind of representative artwork.
I narrowed the selection of buttons to the ones in this photo. The large green/light green button is covered with double knit fabric. I have never liked it much. But look how well it fits in this picture. My friend Helen Neale, who is a fine knitter and colorist, says, “There’s no such thing as an ugly color.†Some colors are meant to set the stage for other colors. Now we can add, “There’s no such thing as an ugly button.â€
I will probably be testing this hypothesis. I made a bunch of buttons a couple of weeks ago, from scrap polymer clay. They are on the razor edge border, teetering toward ugliness. Guess I’ll have to wait for the right project for them.