Support for the wilderness piece

This is the background, the support, for the wilderness piece.  On top of  here, a hand dyed silk piece mounted over cheesecloth on a frame, will go the freeform crochet which is a sage green, then the animals and insects in their habitat.

I have learned dearly to make sure the hangers are in place on the back before working the front, however eager I am to get on with the artwork.  When the front's fragile and dimensional, it's not the time, after it's finished, to start attempting to screw in hangers.  Sad but educational experience has shown me this. 

So I'm showing you the back, silk and cheesecloth trimmed back, stapled tight in place, drumtight to be exact, and covered with masking tape to protect the raw edges but with the eyehooks already in place.


And as soon as I saw this I realized it would be a Good Thing to maybe put another single layer of cheesecloth over the front, since I liked the back a lot as a base.  That way it will be subtler, and won't fight with the stitched small features. Hm.  Probably my next step on the canvas part of the work anyway.

It occurs to me that, different as it is from the big tapestry, I'm still using similar approaches to it: creating modular parts and a habitat for them to move into.  On the tapestry, all the four figures' heads were woven separately on small looms at home, then woven into the main piece on the earthloom.