Sailing ships and sealing wax and other fancy stuff

NY artist Ann Wood has inspired me with her ships and birds and owls. After seeing her ships and sailboats, I spent many a night thinking about them until there came a day that the need to create one of my own was so great that I was not likely to get a good night’s sleep until I did. I sooo wanted to get some really nice dupioni silk for the sails, but I have fabric sitting in my cabinet and it seemed somehow wrong not to use it... at least my first attempt. And it seemed even more stupid/wasteful to even consider sails until I had a basic boat.


Ann offers a pattern for her basic sailboat, which is paper mache over cardboard, but I really liked her fancier sailing ship, which she made from translucent paper and white fabric sails.

I started my sailing ship with a basic wire frame, using cardboard and paper mache on the bottom of the hull.







I then covered the hull with a woven silk fabric that I purchased years ago to make a jacket out off. I never lost sleep over a jacket but since thoughts of a sailing ship were keeping me awake, I think it was a fair trade.

 

 

 

Plus I’m no longer working, so the jacket isn’t really needed.

For the sails, I used a basic cotton twill that I had in my fabric stash. I used some wire in the bottom hem of the sail to give them some ‘air’. I added some patches, buttons and a few beads and I’m really happy with the result.

Since it turned out so well, I went to the fabric store to get some heavy-bodied dupioni silk, but I while I was in the fabric store, I got distracted by the colorful, satiny charmeuse and ended up purchasing several different colors to try a ship with colorful sails. I'm already working on that one and will post pictures when I'm done.

I call this one 'Ship of Dreams' and I even added a nameplate on the back. So fun!