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Designing a Scarf?

One thing I've I've wanted to pursue: Your beautiful scarves are a lot different from paintings, I would guess. What is your process? How do you design one, and what sorts of 'pilot tests' do you go through before you know you have your winner?

   Sidney Oliver

Let me lead you through the process of the most recent scarf design.

This latest scarf evolved in an interesting way, but perhaps no different from any other project. I would never have thought of putting together a scarf featuring turnips if it hadn't been for a request from some women who attend the First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. The church is located on the turnip patch of Knoxville's first settler, James White, and the turnip is the symbol of the church. Even though I'm from Knoxville, I had never heard this lovely story.

This idea was mentioned, but put on our mental back shelves for a while until something triggered the need to get started. Shortly after meeting with the instigator while attending a Knoxville wedding, I was at a symposium on art and architecture at Mount Vernon. It's often difficult to keep still while listening, so I frequently draw. This proved to be an ideal situation to come up with a design for the turnip scarf.

As you can see, this is pretty much the way the design remained other than the center portion.  

I already had two turnip paintings I could use for the border and the four corners, so all I needed to do was to paint something for the center and paint a leaf to be used in the border.

Turnip, 9X12," Oil on Panel

This painting was used in the border. In this way, the turnips simulate pearls.

Turnip 3, 8X8," Pen & Ink with Watercolor

I added a little more to the leaf and probably messed with this a little more in order for this turnip to be used in the four corners.

Next, I called in Liz Oliver, a master at graphics on the computer as well as a fantastic cohort in putting together a project such as this. I think we set a time for her to come to the studio to make an attempt to put this together.  I had a lot of time that morning to finish up the painting below. As you can see, I had begun and had almost finished a normal looking painting of turnips.

Above is the discarded painting I did using pen & ink, watercolor, and oil.

It is split into 4 sections that I was going to connect with strips to resemble stained glass.

By normal, I mean it had a top, bottom, a left, and a right. I felt I could finish the painting in the few hours I had that morning, but before I went to the studio I realized I needed something different. 

I needed a painting that would look balanced from all sides. Whichever way the scarf was turned, nothing would look upside down or backwards. Yikes! I knew I had to move quickly.

I grabbed my turnips and some neutral fabric and threw all of them on the sofa where I took a photo from which to work.

I knew I had no time to go through my usual routine which consists of spending more time goofing off than working. Liz was showing up soon.

I was not quite finished when Liz walked through the door, so she began working on the border with the two other turnip paintings shown at the top.

The painting above is the center of the scarf. As you can see, there is no top or bottom and it can be seen as being viable on all sides.

By this time, Liz had enough to work with. She had the large center and the turnip borders. I still had to paint a leaf. Poor Liz had only my laptop and an old version of Photoshop Elements, which is a scaled down version than the bells and whistles version.

Liz was working on the table doing her computer magic while I was painting a leaf on Staples printing paper. You have to realize that these photographs were taken with an iPhone and not professionally photographed. A professional photographer would not have stood for what we considered serendipitous moments. Unbeknownst to me as the photographer, looming on the left in the photograph was a large blue shadow. Liz and I loved it. We kept it. Notice the depth it creates on the scarf. Folks, that wasn't planned.

Above is the final version of the turnip scarf and below are some fun publicity photographs.

Liz and I sent off the finished graphic to Peter-Blair out of Richmond who took care of having this scarf reproduced on 42X42" 100% silk. Often, I question the finished product, but not this scarf. We are thrilled with the result.

The mannequin is flanked by Laurie Holladay on the right and actor Betsy Brantley on the left.

With the background of Laurie's shop whited out, Betsy quipped that this looks as if they are floating in heaven. I kind of agree, but it was a fun shoot just messing around with the two of them.

From start to finish, this was a fun project and always know that the main goal is to:

Enjoy the process!

  Ruthie Windsor-Mann

This post is part of a series of Q & As between Ruthie Windsor-Mann and Sidney Oliver. 

We invite the reader to join in with other questions in the comments section. This needs to be interactive in order to work.

All photographs are by Ruthie Windsor-Mann unless otherwise credited.

Copyright 2019 Ruthie Windsor-Mann All Rights Reserved