Large Butterfly Done, and so is the artist

So here's the large butterfly, finished, cut out and awaiting placement.  She's about six inches in both directions. 

 I painted the back with a mix of metallic emerald green and white glue, to reinforce as well as color it, and let color bleed through, which I'm very pleased about.  You  see how the blue stitching gives the impression of blue hindwings, and the green stitching on the forewings gives the impression of overall green? optical illusion.  Really, it's all green at the back.  And I really like that this worked the way it did.

This is the time of year when the light levels are low, this artist has too much sugar in the house, and energy is at a premium.  Uphill work, so it's better to give it a little rest, I think, and let ideas mull.

I have decided on a great background, a large embroidered piece dyed irregularly, and now I see that some of the dyed areas suggest butterflies, so this will work. And I found the right size stretcher bars to mount it on.  So this is in fact a big step forward in this piece, and it's better not to push the idea, but let it simmer a while.
 
Sometimes the work ethic gets in the way and presents activity, any activity, as forward movement when really it's just displacement activity.  It usually takes me till mid January to remember this, so perhaps I'm a little ahead of the game!

Of course, all that's needed to precipitate really  good new ideas is to decide to lay off entirely for a few days.  So we'll see what happens here!