If you've been idly wondering how those floating motifs work with the doorway theme, since you can't read my mind which is where all the art planning takes place, I thought I'd post this.
This is the first outline of the first part of the doorway. The motifs will float across it as they're developed -- one already does, as you see -- and there will be more lines to reinforce the shape visually as I go. You see pins holding the couching thread in place here, so as not to lose the shape as I go, since markings wear off the fabric very fast.
The usual problem with scribing an arch is to get the curve working, and rather than resort to endless math computation ending in a wobbly result, I look around for an object already the size and curve I want. This can be a lengthy search, but this time it wasn't.
The round metal dish I've been keeping my supplies for the project in, is just the ticket. So I drew around it without emptying it, living dangerously with all those little containers of beads, and you see a nice result. I reset the pins a couple of times to get the straight part straight and the curved part reasonably symmetrical.
Unusual for me to be particular about a shape to the point of not freehanding it, but for this piece, the archway needs to be a firm readable contour, against which the freeform shapes can play and work better. Just sayin'.
There's another work going on, too, but the progress is so slow that there's not much to show you yet. It's the portable piece, the stitching on white silk with stumpwork one, a flower with leaves, maybe a waterlily, maybe a chrysanthemum, jury still out, not my design, or I'd know! I can take it in to stitch-in evenings, unlike the Big Doorway, which is definitely not portable, what with the size and the different threads and the beads and different needles and all that.
I found today that I need to stand to work on this, just like old times, never sat in the studio. I have it on a wooden cabinet with the edge sticking out far enough for me to work from underneath, and a good height for me to work at. One big reason never to sit to make art is that you have to see it straight in order to understand it. No use sitting and looking across the work as you go, since though we hardly notice it, that gives us a warped image.
The experiment with the goldwork initials is about done, and I think ready to frame.
It's a combo of hand dyeing, goldwork, beads and painted dots. I have a nice Japanese frame ready for it when I get to it.
And here's the Big Doorway Piece, more work done on it. The trailing couched gold thread, of which there will be much more, around the other two motifs, will enclose drifts of beads and stitching.
I can only do this for a short time, because the size is very tiring for my ribcage, oddly enough. Reaching forward and back and guiding the thread front and back is more strenuous than you might think. So a short period at a time works.
This is the interior petals of the flower, which will be done partly in stumpwork like this, partly with surface embroidery.
In the interests of transparency, very appropriate since I'm working on organza, the two open areas are you might say abandoned. I tried them but the thread didn't work out, tried another thread, still wasn't right, so I switched to a floss which is working much better.
I've also moved on from drawing the petals and keeping the wire in the boundary, the usual stumpwork technique, to doing it more freehand, shaping the wire as I go, and it's better for my style than doggedly following a pattern. Why are you not surprised at this.
And this morning I found a gallon of white semi gloss enamel at the dumpster, so it's now up in the studio, and I think my paint requirements for the room have been met. I need a bit of spackle and after that I can get under way.
My studio is at the top of the house, with access on each side to the rafters, where some neighbors store items, and I don't. Most of the neighbors who use the eaves for storage,
which I think is not a good idea, being of the school of thought that
says if you need more and more storage you probably have too much
stuff...anyway, they've got doors put in.
The original access panels were ugly and awkward -- you had to raise your knee to your chin at the same time as stepping up and into a little opening -- then try to reverse the position once in, all without a solid floor. And you had to unscrew and rescrew them every time anyone needed to be in.
See the size of this access door, resting against a table? My friend and handywoman par excellence once got stuck in there, couldn't get out again, slim, but too tall to fold down far enough!
So I decided finally to get the accesses replaced by doors you can just open and walk in. I rarely need to get in there, but when I do I'm not in a mood to be doing contortions, since I'm usually tracking down a leak or some weirdness. And when the roof people need to get in, it seems friendly not to make it as hard as possible for them to do it.
So finally, the weather moderated enough that it wasn't cruel and inhuman to ask Michael the Contractor to step into the unprotected eaves, and today he shows up ready to measure and go. Like this:
And here's the first door, built, set in, hinged, awaiting trim and finishing. The studio is swathed in sheets to protect from dust, though the way he works, there's very little of it. He's good.
Just one more day's work and it's done.He's a gem in that once he starts, he finishes. None of that oh, now I have to work somewhere else for three weeks..
The work I'm on had to be evacuated from there and I
worked downstairs, a bit awkward, light not very good, and the portable
lamp was all swathed and inaccessible upstairs.
But I did stitch and bead. And here's where I am on one piece.
I think this is another doorway concept, but much bigger than the earlier series. And here are details of those bigger motifs
I'm realizing that doorways seem to be a dominant motif in my life at the moment, too. And that there's a LOT more work to be done on this piece.
