Detail of altar cloth—Francesca De Grandis
I’m posting this here instead of Etsy bc I’m so in love with it that I have to show more pics of it than Etsy allows and share my process a bit.
Click pics to see em full size and un-blurred.
You can skip process to get to Product and Purchase Info.
I am 99% sure this silk is 12 mm Crepe de Chine, it is gorgeous stuff! (It is a new scarf, but I accidentally discarded its label!) It was white until I used low-immersion dying to create a lyrically textured backdrop for my hand-painting. I cannot get good nuf shots to show the yummy rosy-beige and texture the dyeing provided, but it is kinda mottled.
This silk is luminous.
Starting the painting
See the pic below: I did the painting with a very fine paint brush—trance-painting. I went to a yum-yum world doing it.
Adding metallic paint
When almost finished painting, I was upset because I thought I might have to keep it for moi, bc it spoke so to me. But I often feel that way, then let go of the piece.
This thing is so long I couldn’t get a good full-length shot of it; this pic shows it across my sofa-bed; it will look great spread full out on a long altar or with its ends draping off the edge of a smaller altar.
Finally, I knew it’s not mine, and was ready to release it to its owner, whoever that might be! I’m happy it has so much magic I can send into the world. I will take even more joy in this altar-cloth knowing it is in someone’s home. And I do not have room to HOARD MY ART, LOL! Plus, I need to earn my living.
Part of the altar cloth. Do you need an altarcloth that will lend beauty, grace, and Faerie magic to any altar or ritual?
I can let go of this piece, I can let go of this piece . . . Oh, it is often hard to let my art go! Heh, when setting the dye I painted with, I was tempted to keep the piece again. But it doesn’t belong to me, I’m only its creator, it belongs to someone else, I know.
Detail of altar cloth
Product and Purchase Info: Update: This item has sold. (That is why there is no longer a PayPal button on the page.) But for the record: $129, plus $4 S & H. 100% silk, 66 X 13.” I am 99% sure it is 12 mm Crepe de Chine. OOAK, original design, painted freehand, initialed and dated by artist. Hand washable. If this item calls you, grab it. I’m almost constitutionally incapable of repeating my designs.
I can only ship within the U.S. And guess what? I made a purchase button, I made a purchase button, I am so proud of me! Now when I want to share my process with friends, I don’t have to post half of it all over again on Etsy.
Update: This item has sold. (That is why there is no longer a PayPal button on the page.)
Part of the altar cloth
Very dear Francesca, you’ll forgive a little superfluity of expression, I hope? lol. Sublimity of delight was what happened when the envelope arrived and out of it into my hand slid your scarf, your exquisite scarf. Oh!
when I held this new creation of yours up, watched it float in a cascade of ombre rose and gold leaf and lyrically flowing lines downward, and began to understand what I was seeing……my eyes filled up with tears and I overflowed with laughter at the same time.
This is the way your art takes me. (smiling)
And this cloth is wildly beautiful. It’s roses, singing. It’s on my altar now, every season at once, the heart of all of them, perfect.
Oh WHAT sublime luck that I happened to be at the computer when you listed it!
Thank you so much for the call last evening, and also for your discernment about the sparkles. Drat. Oh well, just pull down some starlight instead, yes? I believe you could do that!
I’ll be watching with great curiosity for the rich yellow cloth in its final form. 🙂
My dad said, “Who is the woman with the beautiful voice?” Your name was easy enough, but from there….! “And she’s a wild and wildly talented artist. A fey witch. A teacher, singer, author. A star-eyed seer of hearts. She’s beyond all of that.” (spinning helplessly amongst nouns and adjectives)
You craft words like magic, Francesca, but they never hold you! 🙂
Love and love—
Rebecca
Thank you for yr kind kind lyrical words. It feels sooooo good!!
And I am grateful for your understanding that my art cannot hold me, I think that is why, much as I love doing visual art and writing for publishing (as opposed to composing for oral tradition), my first love will always be shamanic teaching and counseling within an oral tradition, bc oral tradition can hold all our magic, every moment!
But the visual art feeds the oral tradition bc it is in the moment when I paint it.
Buyer feedback is crucial but, since you bought the altar cloth in the above blog, instead of, for example, on etsy, i am so grateful you posted your reaction here.
Lol, many of my altarcloths have starlight in them, so you got it! Big hugs!
Beautiful! I so LOVE when you use the metallic paints <3
TU!!!
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