Blue Velvet

Much of the "Desire" piece is backed with or surrounded by blue crushed velvet, a length of which came to me as part of an inherited scrap bag -- inherited from where is anyone's guess, since I'm pretty sure it came by way of Mom, who almost certainly picked it up at an estate sale.

Velvet is an interesting fabric to work with. I'm no dressmaker -- I've never attempted the stuff before. It is singularly appropriate for this piece: voluptuous, unwieldy, protean. It has a deep pile, and its crumpled texture is great as a suggestion of watery movement. A deep blue piece next to a black velvet piece really soaks up the light, creating depth. But it's stretchy, and it slithers around under the needle of the sewing machine, fish-like, unpredictable. Two pieces laying face to face (in order to hide the seam as it's sewn) will shift in every direction as the feed dogs pull it through. There's no telling how crooked the actual seam might lay. It's fun, not to know what the final shape will be as pieces are joined at varying angles. Obviously an experienced seamstress knows how to cope with this, but I don't really care. It has an aliveness to it, this fabric. I feel strange cutting it, like it's butchery. Or as if I were Dennis Hopper in "Blue Velvet," going after poor weird Isabella Rossellini with his scissors, cutting a big jagged swatch out of her velvet dressing gown and rubbing it across his demented, sweaty face.

Nice image, huh?