Design Concept

photo

digital painting

My father was a watchmaker. In addition to working for the Elgin Watch Company, he had his own watch repair business in our home and continued doing “watch work” long after retirement. When he died at the age of 103, I inherited his watch parts cabinet, which was organized just as he left it at the age of 88 when he was no longer able to see the microscopic parts. Some of the drawers included partial watch movements, with many of their gears, springs, and jewels still intact.

In 2017, my husband Ron and I began looking at these objects close-up, first with a digital microscope and later with a macro lens. Ron discovered that by using a focus stacking technique he could get every part of the image in focus. I cropped one of these images until it became just an abstract composition. I digitally painted the whole image, removing objects I didn’t want to quilt around, smoothing the textures of the various metal parts, and adding additional shadows and highlights as well as some additional jewels that were not in the photo. I had the image printed on cotton fabric. In the quilting, I used many different colors of thread, including metallics and variegated, to make quilting patterns that new textures and to the various metals and jewels of the mechanism.
The back is a one-of-a-kind, hand-dyed fabric, and the binding is solid black.

Exhibitions:

• Photos Pixels & Pizzazz, (solo exhibition), McLean Textile Gallery, McLean, VA, April 1-May 2, 2022
• Photos Pixels & Pizzazz, (solo exhibition), Quilt Show Reno, Reno-Sparks Convention Center, Reno NV, June 9-11, 2022
• Reflections of Light: Recent Works by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA, July 13-October 30, 2022
• Photos, Pixels, & Pizzazz: Digital Quilts by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, Special exhibition, Road to California Quilters Conference, Ontario, CA, January 17-21, 2023
• Photos, Pixels, & Pizzazz: Special Exhibit,
  • Quiltfest Greenville, Greenville Convention Center, Greenville, SC, April 20-22, 2023
  • Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, September 14-17, 2023
  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA, October 12-15, 2023
• Photos, Pixels, & Pizzazz: Recent Quilts by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, Iowa Quilt Museum, Winterset Iowa, December 12, 2023 - March 10, 2023

Publications

• None as of 11/09/2023