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The Nymphaea
Each falling willow branch opens the way to a magical garden, that shelters a wonderful sight – the pond, with its magnificent surface, which breathes softly in the dusk, decorated with sparkling crowns of water lilies, surrounded by mystic shades of sapphire and emerald.
Like willow curtains, sheer folds and layers of blue tulle, without revealing the secrets and intimacy of the body, open and emphasise female elegance and allure, tenderness and attractiveness.
The meditative poetics of twilight gently envelops with its serene melody while branches sway like the strings of the harp, reflected in the water. The scent of a marvellous fougère sweetness floats and the reflections of the stars sparkle on the surface, embracing you and taking you to the wonderful land of dreams.
This is an alluring night magic, filled with the mood of the impressionists. This is a seductive spell of a translucent mist that covers water. This is the embrace of a marvellous nymph who rewards you with a limpid touch and a passionate fusion of lips - the expression of pure love.
The most recognisable series of works created by Claude Monet is Water Lilies, consisting of more than two hundred paintings created in twelve years. The mood of the works was supposed to create the illusion of water – boundless, stretched without horizon. As Monet himself noted in the diary: "Only a pond with lilies should be visible and nothing behind it".
Anyone who saw the series of paintings in the flesh would say that watching the pond can create an impression of a blossoming tree reflected in the water. The choice of colour, composition and technique used by Monet in this picture, made this an ideal creation of impressionism, due to its ability to evoke a sense of peace in the viewer. I followed these ideas, thinking about how to express these associations in fabrics and embroidery.
Many impressionist artists preferred to make their creations vivid, and soaring, so the landscape was smooth, and light or, on the contrary – they demonstrated darkness and mystery. I meant and used this while playing with layers of navy-blue and emerald-green mesh, to create changing depth in the background of hand embroidery.
The top layer is decorated with embroidered willow leaves that wrap the bodies and the upper part of the skirt.
Their texture is diverse, like real leaves on a wind-blown tree, they turn one side or the other, demonstrating its satin, sparkling and metallic surface, while some leaves are studded with shiny round and facet beads.
The embroidery on the bodice and the skirt is designed and made in such a way that all the stitched elements match exactly, in the seam area of the waistline and along the darts.
The arrangement of seams in the dress is designed to make the construction lines invisible, so all the darts in the bodies are vertical to follow the vertical direction of the embroidery design.
The seams on the tulle are neat and thin, the width is 1-1.5mm.
The darts and the seam allowances are finished with a French seam on the outside, while the allowances in the lining are bias-binded.
The shades of cool-green and deep-blue of the water and leaves create a stark contrast to the warm pink, red, burgundy, golden and yellow tones of the water lilies in the centre of the painting, making the lilies the centre of attention.
I used this as the key to unlock the mood of the dress, recreating a mysterious garden, illuminating the treasures in the pond, that shine like flower wreaths of precious stones covered with veil. They do not hit the eye straightforwardly, but slightly reveal a calming symphony of flowering water, rather abstract from afar and detailed up closer.
Like on Monet's canvas, here there are no specific lines separating flowers and water, which gives the composition a blurry look, an almost abstract portrait of nature, at the same time being a recreation of realism.
In the embroidery, there is a combination of tambour beading and chain stitching, satin stitching made with silk, cotton and woollen threads, silk ribbons and chenille, decorated with sequins of various textures and colours.
The waist is wrapped by a velvet belt, made of Uzbek Dukhoba - a handwoven silk velvet. It has an extremely delicate touch, satin sheen and depth.
It resembles one of the main subjects of the paintings in the Water Lilies series – the Japanese Bridge – a round bridge across the pond, which dwells in the surroundings created by nature, and remains the one man-made construction in the garden, but the cool tones of it let it blend with the scenery, the grass and flowing water of the garden, becoming a natural-looking element in the “painting”, leaving room for the water lilies to shine.
The waistband is accompanied by a purse to "sound" in unison with the dress and the story of the Nymphaea.
