Bird Buta Motif Making

This week, I finished steaming and washing the Buta prints. Then, I went and bought a magnifying glass, which makes me want to design and carve! This is a perfect opportunity for me. It means I can cut and piece a new quilt top, but also design and start thinking about my next my next print job.


I am not quite out of the woods, in wanting to work with the Buta motif. A Buta is a small medallion shaped motif, which is often, but not limited to, a floral type design. It usually repeats in a tight, strict repeat. Rather than continuing to work with floral Buta motif, I decided to try placing a bird surrounded by a ‘medallion’ shaped branch.

The above image shows the carving at the half-way point. The background needs to be removed. I always stop at just the point, make a strike off and print a few on cloth, before proceeding to the finish mark. This has been so much fun to carve. I look forward to completing this!

 

A post shared by Melanie Testa (@mellytesta) on

//www.instagram.com/embed.jsOne more thing. So often, folks will ask, how long did it take you to carve this? I started this design on Saturday night. It will probably take 8 hours, in total, to complete, and I am being generous. It can be used for years, though! So the time it took to carve really means nothing, especially when compared with what I might make of it. 🙂

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Published by Melanie (Melly) Testa

I am an artist who loves the outdoors. I dancewalk with confidance. My artistic medium of choice is using, thickened Procion MX dye, to multicolor print my own cotton cloth. Appliqué is the bomb diggity.

One thought on “Bird Buta Motif Making

  1. I love the birdie buta! My order of the eco carve arrived, so you are inspiring me to get carving soon. On another topic, as I was working on the rocking chair, I watched 2 mourning doves check out the trees next to the girl fort. It was a Goldilocks moment – this branch is too springy, this one to close to cat’s paws, I don’t like the view……….I think she is watching us……”. It was a wonderful distraction. (I love my hankie!)

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