Philadelphia Banners are Finished!

Philadelphia Gold and White Banners

Here they are! I brought all the banners to a tall open building downtown, and hung them over the railings. This is the first time I was able to see them as they are meant to be, and I was very pleased. They match what I had in my mind's eye very well.

Look at the photo of the chapel to the right of this post, and imagine these finished banners where they belong. It might help to look at the watercolor sketch right below the photo, which shows what the green banners were to look like and where they would go.

In perspective

In this picture you can see the banners' size in relation to the stairs and doors. They are really quite large: 16 feet by 45 inches. They are made to fit the space in the chapel, and hopefully will be just right. If things are too small or too big for a space they loose their relationship with the architecture...So I look forward to seeing photos of these hung where they belong.

Philadelphia Purple Season Banners

These purple banners seemed to paint themselves. It was almost like a dance, following initiative from the colors I'd chosen and putting them rhythmically onto the silk.

Philadelphia Green Season Banners

And here are the Green Season banners. You can see that the breeze is blowing them a bit: That's something I like about the silk, that it moves in a breeze. These green ones you will have to see in person to get all the GREEN-ness in them. They speak loudly of growing things.

I've had so much fun making these. But now I can put the couches back in the living room, and Kristofer can use his adjacent shop. We took the 16' x 45" frame down and moved back in. Someday my big attic studio will be ready for use, hopefully next fall. This summer we're building the stairway to get up there, then reinforcing the floor joists, then a nice big dormer with a view.....

Two Green Banners

Green Banner II

Green Banner I

From the Top looking toward the Bottom

Gold Banners in progress

Kristen painting on silk

 Here are some pictures of me working on the Gold I banner.

The colors are brighter when they are wet, but even out and get less intense and mix together as they dry.

Gold Banner I

This dye is one of my favorites. I've mixed in just a tad of green and fuchsia to vary the color a bit.

Gold Banner I

Detail Gold Banner I

I'm not sure yet which side is up and which is down. I think that will depend on the second gold banner, which is now on the frame waiting for one more coat of dye.

Hanging, best it can

Detail Gold I

The above picture gives an idea of the sheen of the silk. One side of the silk is this way, and the other side is not shiny: the fabric is called crepe-backed silk charmeuse. The charmeuse is lusterous and the crepe is not shiny at all.

It's hard to get a good picture of these banners since they're so long. What you are not seeing is the beautiful shimmer on this fabric, and the color doesn't reproduce accurately. It's not so orange as it appears on my screen and maybe yours, but more gold. You may be able to see how beautifully this fabric drapes. It is luxuriant.

Upper portion Gold Banner I

I am pleased with this banner, celebratory and representing bright sacred energy.  White is the brightest color there is, even brighter than red. I think this aspect, the white, is giving it lots of energy. The purple banners will be quieter. They are next!

Green Banner

 

Taryn, here is a detail of the green banner.

Detail Green Season Banner Kristen Gilje

Green Season Banner Kristen Gilje

It's hard to get a good shot of the whole banner in my house, stretched horizontally on its frame. I've made arrangements to photograph it at the ferry terminal this weekend so we can hang it over the balcony and get a really accurate picture.

The above is the best photo I could get. Remember that the bottom of this banner will be shaped into an inverted arch.

upper half

Here's a shot of the upper part

From the top looking towards the bottom

and heres a shot of the banner upside down. About 6" of the edge closest to us will be made into a sleeve for  a hanging device.

White and Gold banner trials

layered technique with golds, white

Hi Taryn. 

Just to confirm, the following watercolor mock-up is the design we will be following for all three sets; the gold/white, green, and purple.

watercolor sketch of green banners.

example: brush stroke technique

and the above picture of the "brush stroke technique" is what we will NOT be using in any of our banners. 

In order to translate the above green watercolor sketch into  

silk dye on silk I have two techniques to use and will be using  them both in all the banners. One technique blends the colors softly together, and the other, a layering technique, makes some beautiful organic changes between and with the colors. This second technique I 'll be adding in judiciously to keep all 16x2 feet of banners beautiful, dynamic and interesting. 

The gold and white horizontal piece at the top of this post is a 60" x 7" scarf I made this weekend with only the layering technique, and the dyes I will be using for our gold/white pieces. Below is a detail of this same piece.  These are pretty intense examples. Remember that they are small and close up. Seen from a distance and on a much larger piece, and mixed in with the soft watercolor technique, the effect will be much toned down. The advantage is that I have a tool for guiding the eye, and we are using a beautiful quality of the silk itself to our advantage.

I've got two beautiful gold dyes, one more yellow and one deeper, closer to brown but still gold. I've added for a little more color variation a bit of green and a cool red.. 

detail layered tech. with golds, green and cool red

I am envisioning more golds than white on our banners, since the church itself has so much white. I'm thinking 20-30%white, 80-70% golds.

Below is just another scarf I made with greens and blues and a gold.

layered technique with greens, blues, golds

I didn't make a scarf combining the two techniques, as my main purpose was to play with the colors and give you an idea of this second technique.

Design ideas for LTSP

Hi Taryn. 

I did a bit of math, and if we go with 16 feet by 45 inches I think this will imitate the mock-ups I sent you earlier, fitting on the walls with 4" to the wall corners on each side.  I'm assuming the organ boxes will overlap them a bit. The proportions will be about the same as the blue banner above: 4 units long, 1 unit wide, or 4:1. (16' x 3.75') The lowest quarter would be the inverted arch shape.








I'm remembering you'd like one set green, one purple and one gold/white.
The blue one here could easily be adapted to purples instead of blues. It would have some blue and some fuchsia in it, but would be mostly purple.






Would you like them all to be in the style of the banner to the left? That would be great. I also have included one more idea for the Green Season, and another for the Gold/White, both following.

 The picture here (small watercolor sketches from the mock-up I sent you) could be made in a similar style to the one above, with the colors I used here. The brush strokes would be in a yellow-green, with darker greens for background. I like to put a red of some sort in with the greens, sometimes an earthy brown red and sometimes a fuchsia that also mixes to a brown. There's some turquoise green I see in there as well.

Here's another idea for the green season: Leaves. This is a stole on a blue background, but my favorite is to make it on a  dark green background. The leaves could be blown up very big.

These two cropped stoles would be about the right proportions, again with the inverted arch on the bottom. That red on the right is a bit much. And maybe the leaves are too big proportionally. They could be smaller.

 The gold and white banner could be similar to the following gold one, without the calligraphy but instead with a few really white brush strokes on the gold, like in the lettering, that have a gesture like the fuchsia brush stroke in the first picture, of the blue banner.

 Another option would be to have some calligraphy on it: "Alleluia". If we did that we'd have to add $$, as it's more work and I need to pay my calligrapher fair market value. I'm communicating right now with her about another project and pricing so could let you know soon if you're interested in this.



















Feel free to leave comments here. Whoever is signed into this blog can read the comments and it's a good way to communicate.

Thanks,
Kristen