This is the current state of play of the piece I'm working on. To wit, the wing parts of the luna moth which I'm not doing in natural colors, but I am hewing to the natural forms.
These are wired, stitched down around the drawn design, then buttonhole stitched, some sparkly ribbon cut to fit and stitched in as I go. You'll see the last segment, drawn but no wire yet, and that will approximate the other tail section when all's said and done. You can't quite tell here how sparkly the base ribbon is, catches the light at every move.
The muslin it's stitched on, natural unbleached, is only the support for these pieces. When they're stitched, I'll cut around the wires -- this is stumpwork -- and remove them to attach them to their permanent support, using the wires at the back to help secure them. Then I'll stitch a body for the moth.
There's an element of faith that enters in at this point, where this is one fragment of many fragments of a piece full of ideas that I hope will come together as hoped and even work. So this is where we are. Just as an index of size, the hoop is about 4" diameter.
Wired with fine wire taken out of the ribbon, didn't have the necessary beading wire, wire stitched down with silk and gold threads, the inner parts couched with silk, then floss split stitched on the tail section. All the raw materials, muslin, silk thread, couching thread, floss, hoop, even needles, are donated by kind people wanting to see work like this happen.
Fortunate, really since I'm constitutionally incapable of deliberately buying items for any artform. It's all recycling to me.
Two parts going on at once: in the kitchen, mulberry paper over tiles, molded with water, drying and ready to be installed somewhere on the crocheted foliage.
And in the living room, while I listen to an audiobook, the beginnings of a luna moth, with help from Jane Nicholas' wonderful new embroidery book about stumpwork butterflies and moths.
It arrived yesterday and I whipped through it in search of a luna moth.
What you see here are the forewings, wired and to be stitched much more, around the edges, and the "eyes" to be stitched. This is a wired ribbon, wire removed, which I used to cut out the forewings, and will use for the hind wings, too, needed to do the forewings in order to see if it worked.
I secured them in place on the muslin with gold silk thread, then applied the wire, taken from the edge of the ribbon, just right for the purpose, stitched down again. This is the engineering part of it.
The decorative stitching will hide all these underpinnings. Then once the hind wings are done, too, all will be cut out and transferred to a different backing, to be part of the artwork. Along with other butterflies and moths, I think. I plan on a lot of goldwork for these insects, rather than the natural colors.
And, for a little example of how life imitates art, go here
So this is what's afoot.
The freeform crochet, color is a pale sage green, on natural colored muslin pinned on a big hoop, probably a quilting hoop, just to see it, will probably come off and a painted, frizzled, technical term, Tyvek will be on the bottom layer, the crochet replaced, and meandering about over the top of the Tyvek, and various insects and wee beasties in the foliage. At least that's the plan.
Here's how the Tyvek painting looked with the acrylic paint, metallic gold, applied with sponge brush, my fave tool.
I had a fun time frizzling the Tyvek, and even more fun getting the acrylic back off the footplate, having forgotten the correct temp at which to frizzle. Note to self: cooler than you thought. But the acrylic came off obligingly onto the paper I was ironing through, so that was fine.
Here it is all frizzled nicely, and after I trimmed down the frizzled painting, here it is in relation to the crocheted work stretched on the hoop
Then this habitat will need inhabitants, drawings of which you see here, along with the threads I have in mind to create them separately, using the tiny hoop.
I'll create the little bees and lizards and their friends, seen here in drawings, in goldwork with beading, for later affixing in their crocheted and Tyvek habitat. Handmade paper will also feature in this work. I already have some I embossed with a little honeycomb design. And I molded little animals in handmade paper, which you saw earlier.
It's shaping up to be a kind of fourth dimensional piece, where time is the fourth dimension, ghostly bees and lizards molded in pure white paper, along with lively ones in goldwork and beading.
A sort of update of Peaceable Kingdom, if Douanier Rousseau had known how to crochet, or to bead and stitch, or to do goldwork, or if Tyvek had been invented, or if he knew about even the third dimension, let alone the fourth, he being a flat, decorative sort of painter..cue Matisse.. Well, come to think of it, nothing like Peaceable Kingdom, more like Stitched Wilderness...
But exactly how this will all come about, don't ask me, I only work here! this is one of those works I'm not in charge of. It just has been coming over me in bits for several months.
And today, after reading a great history of Eliz. First, by Alison Weir, a great read, my right brain, evidently tired of being quiet while I studied peace treaties and dates and political strategies, suddenly presented me with this possibility. Who am I to argue?
Anyway, that's where we are. Speaking of helpful, I hope, dear blogistas, you realize how helpful it is to the process to have this blog where I can think aloud and bang on about what I'm doing, knowing I'm being read with interest and curiosity.
I did one other small Tyvek work, you saw it in my exhibit earlier this year, and I think I need to do more, once I get this piece properly under way. The nice part is that it uses the studio, haven't been doing that much lately, and it also gives me portable bits to carry in to my embroiderers' guild meetings, always a nice thing. So often my work isn't portable and I sort of chat and drink tea!
If anyone wants to know more about the Tyvek thing, just ask in the comments, and I'll be sure and say more next time. I hesitate to bore you with endless technical stuff, but I'm glad to talk about it if useful to you. Also to point out the precautions you need to take if you do it.
