The mola forms part of the traditional outfit of a Kuna woman. You can see in the photo the outfit on this woman. I took this photo at a market in Casco Viejo. She is also selling traditional Panamanian handicrafts. I did not buy my mola here, but in a less touristy part of Panama city. It was a little less expensive there. I appreciate the amount of work that goes into the making of a mola and I do feel they are underpriced at times. Also, the cheaper ones are not as skilfully done. The one I bought did have a few problems for this reason, but I still thought it was beautiful.
My mola was unfinished with frayed and uneven edges. The first thing I did was try and square it so that I could add a border.
After I trimmed it back to straight edges it was not quite square so I had to do some creative quilting.
Next, I removed some appliqué that I felt was not working. You can clearly see the stitches in this circle that are supposed to be hidden. I also removed the decorative stitching.
I added some of my own appliqué designs. I am not crazy about how the eyes turned out. Next time I will make them a little smaller and not as traditional.
I did a little decorative stitching in the blank spaces left be the appliqué that I removed. I also stitched over some appliqué to make it stand out a little more.
I filled in the black spaces with a little shimmery thread I had,
quilting it to the thick polyester batting. I actually found this process very relaxing...
Voila! A finished piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment