mill wheels work in progress: making decisions

Sometimes I have a general idea of where I want my art to go, sometimes not. In the case of Mill Wheels the idea was general but very much NOT exact. This is where one of my favorite tools comes in handy.

Design Wall + Digital Camera = Choices!

Stick your pieces on the wall and then move stuff around and take a picture of each iteration. Look at them together and what do you have? A good idea of which design ideas will not work, and which will.

I knew I wanted three wheels up on the wall but not exactly where. You can see I haven’t pulled the freezer paper templates off the wheel on the right yet. Scroll down the the previous post to read about how I use them.

As soon as I saw them up I realized I wanted just a little bit more structure in the background. I quickly cut up and pieced the background cloth back together. Subtle, I know, but I like the geometry of the squares that you can barely see against the circles. Now – where to place the wheels. 

Can you see how looking at all of the options together gives you a pretty good idea of what might work and what doesn’t? I like the center option but sort of fell in love with the option on the right with the wheel hanging off the edge. That could pose some challenges.

I tried adding a bit to one side and thought of adding the purple along the bottom too, but found I was missing that overhang. Adding a narrower strip worked for me. On the right you can see the artwork quilted. After thinking it over I used a sort of pillow-case facing to achieve the overhang I was going for. 

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the final piece!
If by some lucky chance you are going to be in San Diego between July and October stop by the Visions Art Museum and see it in person.