If only I would listen to my own advice. But no. I decided to try adding some fabric to the mixed media iris piece.
I had some lovely silk fabric in green and blue violet. The fabric looks much bluer than the iris in the photo but it isn’t as blue as the camera shows it. I thought that by adding the fabric, it would frame the iris and crop out some of the background. I decided that I liked the upper right corner formation.
So I used matte medium to glue it down. I painted over the entire piece and then left it to dry. The fabric was flat against the canvas when I left but when I checked it later, there were bubbles everywhere under the fabric. Sigh.
And I should have quit while I was ahead. But I thought I’d show you anyways. Everything doesn’t come out perfect or as planned. Of course if I had planned a little better I might not have gotten this far and gone overboard. Oh well. Live and learn.
Ruth Lane Art 
Ruth, it’s always hard to know when to stop especially when you’re tempted by beautiful fabric. I’m sorry your experiement didn’t meet your expectations. But if you’ve learned something then not all is lost. 🙂
Thanks Marilyn!
Nothing we do – however it turns out – is wasted. It’s all grist to the learning mill. But you could still crop the iris out to use as a card/small picture?
Thanks Lyn – I could crop the iris out and use it for something else.
Yes, crop it, use it and enjoy! It’s often difficult to know when to stop – all part of the learning curve. 🙂
It brought back memories of my first wallpapering venture! 🙂
Thanks Judith – you made me laugh about the wall paper 🙂
The bubbles give more dimension/ 3 -d to the piece
Thanks Frances = yes, it does have more dimension but it is just not attractive 🙂
It’s a shame as it was looking so good, but I do like Lyn’s suggestion of turning this into a positive experience by making another piece from the Iris. How well is the remaining picture stuck down? Could it be salvaged, possibly by cutting it up and rearranging on another background?
I looked to see if perhaps I could pull the fabric off. I probably can but I think it will make it really messy. It is all on a canvas on stretcher bars so I could cut the iris part out and then recover the stretcher bars with another canvas. I like the idea of applying the iris to another background. That might work – thanks!