Bargello-Magenta Style
Bargello is a museum in Florence, Italy. Among the collections exhibited there are
by Carole Parsonssome beautiful upholstered furniture with a special pattern known as the Bargello style. (The Bargello is a needlepoint stitch with a zigzag pattern used in 17th-century upholstery.) Today, quilters use this technique. Helene Metivier, of Magenta, was inspired by these quilts and made paper quilts with a similar design.
1. This card consists of four layers. The card itself, one layer of plain cardstock, the Bargello layer, and the embossed cut out image on top. Sizes may vary of course. In class, we used the following sizes: Card itself, a 5 1/2 plain layer of 4 3/4" square, and the Bargello layer, a 4 1/2" square.
2. Cut cardstock into several strips 1/8 to 5/8 inch wide. You will need 2-3 different widths to make your design interesting. You don't have to measure! You may use several different colors. My instructor, Diana Gehrt, used 2-3 different colors that coordinated with the card and second layer.
3. Use the direct to paper technique to provide a background for each strip. Use 3-4 colors of cat's eye pigment pads. Lightly rub the ink on each strip. Begin with the lightest color progressing to the dardest color. Rub a little here and there, blending the edges just a little. (I like turquoise, seaglass, coral, magenta, violet, peacock, oldrose, helliotrope, aqua, smoke blue, amber, and cranberry.)
4. After you have several strips done in this manner, stamp on them with black dye ink. Choose an image that is fairly dark, or solid. If the stamp is larger than the strip, just try to stamp with the same part of the stamp each time.
5. Overstamp with gold Encore metallic. Choose an image that is fairly open or "lacy" for this. Again, I the stamp is larger than the strip, just try to stamp with the same part of the stamp each time for a uniform look.
6. To assemble your Bargello pattern, cut a piece of black (or navy depending on your color scheme) cardstock to the size you would like the top layer of your card to be. Then cover with adhesive. We used a Xyron machine for this in class, but at home I used a double-sided tape dispenser to apply the adhesive.
7. Begin by laying the first strip across one edge of the black cardstock. Lay the next strip right next to the first one, without leaving any space between them. You can alternate the direction of the strips if you like. Place a couple strips horizontally and a couple strips vertically, repeating until the cardstock is completely filled. You might also like to lay the strips in a diagonal pattern. in this case begin in the middle, placing the first strip from corner to corner. Or you can lay 3-4 strips in a horizontal direction. Then lay 3-4 in a vertical direction just under those. Finish by laying the last strips in a horizontal direction.
8. You will have strips that extend beyond the black cardstock. Trim the edges of the strips even with the black piece. Save the strips that you trimmed off for another project!
9. Use a glod leafing pen (I use Krylon) to line the edges of your Bargello piece. Just place the tip half on the edge, and half off. Go slow and you will have a beautiful gold edge!
10. On the card itself, or bottom layer, stamp with black and overstamp with gold just like you did the strips. You only need to do the outer edges of the card, as the center will be covered up with the other layers anyway.
11. Attach the layers with double-sided tape. Finally, using a piece of cardstock -a color of one of the layers- stamp and gold emboss a flower, butterfly or some other image that is relatively solid or "filled in". Cut it close to the embossed edge, and carefully curl the edges with the curved handle of your scissors. Now attach it to the Bargello layer using raised mounting tape (you can buy this in home improvement stores).
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Copyright 2005-2006 Jacqueline Fitzgerald Graham
Last revised: April 09, 2006.
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