This month, we’re finishing up our posts about Ania’s Kinetic Water Series, with one about Ania’s “Koi Pond with Water Lilies” project. If you missed the previous posts about this series, you can read about Ania’s “Water Lilies in Summer Bloom” project here, and about Ania’s “Koi Below the Surface” project here.
This final piece continues the themes discussed in those two previous posts. To see the project, and to read about Ania’s approach to it, read on below:
How does this project tie together the previous two projects in this series?
It puts together the flora and the fauna of the pond. For me, this project is the closest I’ve come to creating the reality of what goes on in a pond. This is what I could include from a pond without going into a larger scale production.
The lily pads in this piece are much larger than the ones in the first piece. That’s because I had to adjust them in relation to the size of the fish and what you would find in a pond. Similarly, the roots are much longer here, and that was an attempt to create a more immersive experience for the viewer.
I’ve thought about creating this type of project on a much larger scale, but that would require a gallery to install it. Technically, that type of project would require a more industrial level. “Koi Pond with Water Lilies” is the limits of what I could do within my own home. Who knows though, maybe I have a bigger version of this project on my horizon!
This project continues the themes that were present in the first two pieces in the series, but how is this piece different from those first two?
In the first piece, “Water Lilies in Summer Bloom,” the lily pads are placed at heights in relation to each other. In this final piece, the water lilies are evenly placed. That was deliberate, because I wanted to take the idea of perspective further in this project. The placement of the lily pads evenly at the top of the piece gives the impression that the lily pads are floating on water, with a couple of koi swimming among the roots of the lily pads. The placement of each of the pieces in this project is deliberately creating a more full image of a pond.
When you look at “Koi Below the Surface,” the fish could be anywhere in the water. They could be at the very surface, or at the deepest depths of the pond. The lily pads are always at the surface though, so the combination of the lily pads and the koi in one piece really creates a full image of the scene I wanted to create.
How did you make color planning choices for this project?
That was interesting. I came across a photograph of the underside of water lilies and they were different shades of gold and similar colors. I used that image as inspiration for the underside of these water lilies. I included some lavender and fuchsia shimmer wool to mimic air bubbles caught underneath the leaves and water. For the tops, I used a variety of blues, greens, golds, and violets.
The rest of the piece incorporated colors that I had used on the previous projects in this series. The roots in this piece are from the same yarn that I had hand dyed for the roots in “Water Lilies in Summer Bloom,” and my approach to the koi was very similar to how I hooked the fish in “Koi Below the Surface.” I used different shades of orange wool, metallic and shimmer wool to get the effect that I wanted.
If you have any final questions for Ania on her Kinetic Water Series, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below!
My Mother's a Hooker 