The word ‘Uncharted’ made me think of uncharted seas. I studied many pictures of the deep; I loved the different rocks and plants, but they all seemed very dark. I wanted to depict a colourful, happy sea with bright plants and fish, and definitely no rubbish. I gathered many bright hued photographs of seas around the world and took inspiration for the colours from them.
I have used the collage technique with commercial batiks, small amounts of fine net and organza. I cut out different shapes of fabrics and glued these onto a fine muslin background, laying this onto wadding before machine stitching in place. The large fish was collaged separately. Smaller fish were painted onto calico and cut out. I covered these with net and stitched around them before cutting away the netting. The organza was laid over the blue fabrics and small black net fish. Backing fabric was put in place before quilting and beading. I painted fish on the pieced background before binding.
