Hamadryas - Progressing

Neki had the idea that this design could be printed and then stitched on top. That's what I think too. A silk screen print. A stamp even. Unfortunately, neither of those methods are options currently. 

So it had to be the hard way... cutting out each individual form... and building up the colors by layer! 

It's not like I either have a large stash of cloths to choose from. I found some scraps which were kind of the colors that I had in mind, but are not the easiest for this kind of work. Some thin linens, a heavier linen, and a poly-cotton mix, all of which refused to pass with grace through the blades of the scissors, [admittedly, this might have been easier had I not been using my scissors to cut branches recently!] the grain shreading off in all directions, giving everything a very un-uniform edge. But I decided not to let that put me off, and kept at it. Perhaps it will be more interesting because of that?

Now, I have a massive headache, and the first piece ready to be stitched in months. 

But will I?

Here it is under construction... layer-by-layer!

What do you think?

Strange new symbol

I rushed home at the end of work, determined to use the couple of free hours I knew I was going to have - Nilo is spending the weekend with his father, and the man was fishing - doing something creative. I had been thinking all day about the wings from my previous post.

I blew up some very small sections of different parts of the image. Above is just one example of these. This one really captured my imagination. Very rapidly, and before any notions of perfection could establish, [that happens alot to me, it cripples creativity, does that happen to you too?], I scratched out what I saw as the essence of the form.

Inventing a strange new symbol.

  Nothing fussy. A scrap of tracing paper. and a broken fine line pen, to scratch out a possible repeat pattern.

Dragged into Photoshop with some block color added. The lines from my sketch were not strong enough for the paint can tool to distinguish the seperate fields, so it limited the areas where I could vary the color. Which maybe helped to stop me from over-complicating the whole thing! I was really pleased with this as the start of something . Feels like something that I can call mine. Fits with earlier efforts, that might be described as bold. Has a rawness about it that I find pleasing. 

What is this strange new symbol? 

And can I translate it into cloth and stitch?...

I think this was possible today because Morna has a big heart!