Some time ago I painted my ‘La Donna’ series of silk scarves. Two of the five colour combinations I created didn’t really chime with the contemporary trends, however they both sold quickly. Then the green version was purchased as a gift and it was duly shipped to Singapore. It had been my favourite of the series. It is one of those oddities, for me anyway, when I take over 300 photos during a shoot how often the single best photograph turns out to be my current favourite piece.
Returning to this series as a whole the lilac and pink versions have not been successful colour combinations. I am surprised as generally any of my scarves with a fair amount of pink have sold well not least as the softer pinks are a complementary colour for wearing near the face. Mind you looking at the photographs of the lilac scarf I can see it looks more dull and dreary than restrained and muted. Although I do have to mention that lilac, in a similar way to red, isn’t accurately captured in a photograph and as with most of my work the scarves do look better in real life. Anyway, it was time to jazz up both the pink and the lilac and I think make the patterning more complex.
Firstly, I tackled the lilac one. I repainted the lilac area adding a deeper mauve that together with the new fuchsia highlights has resulted in an overall brighter, more zingy appearance. Also, I think building more complexity into the black and white areas has balanced the overall feel of the scarf.
As usual with photographing colour the resultant image always varies with the light, but happily this daylight shot (below) is a fair representation.
Next I turned to the pink scarf, but felt this one already had enough pinky pinkiness about it and it didn’t need the background changing. It just needed an overall pulling together of the different design components.
This has been achieved by adding more patterning to the black and white areas and at the same time integrating the blue patterned band using a zigzag magenta border.
I had always been pleased with the design of this series and I did like the original pink interpretation, nevertheless I am much happier with this intensified more vibrant version.
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Agnes Ashe 
You do right to be pleased.
Thank you. Have a good weekend.
I didn’t think about editing once finished – interesting.
I often prefer the ones that have been edited. Of course then the whole process has taken twice as long, but unfortunately I can’t charge twice as much.
The same with pots – but the outcome of re-glazings and second firings is often wildly unpredictable. Make or break!
But any successful, unexpected outcome is worth the risk isn’t it? I’m definitely in the make or break camp.
I think it is amazing how you can redesign the scarves. Certainly never any stock obsolescence with that plan, and such a beautiful outcome.
I have to say that sometimes it is quite difficult to achieve significant change, but I often prefer the end result to the original. I am not a less is more person as you can see!!!