Finished?

I think I have finished this cloth – deciding against background stitching as the figure is stitched directly into the cloth she may well disappear if I add more.   The cloth is hanging at the foot of my bed and I have been looking at it and looking at it for days and days.  A procrastinator at heart I have been trying to make up my mind whether, in fact, this is truly finished.  I feel that if I keep fiddling and adding bits here and there I will lose the essence of what I have already.  To make this into a truly completed work it has yet to have a backing attached and the edges bound, which I will also do by hand.  I have not done so already  because of my lack of a final final decision.   Life may be a spiral, my mind certainly follows that route over and over .

I have added more stems and completed the stream at the base of the cloth – it is there that I am undecided about – should there be more?????

This would be it, in its raw state …. I am delighted to have managed to focus on this for the whole year …. already I have in mind where I am going next, creatively speaking.

Cauldron bubbling…….

At last I have had the time and inclination to get started on the cauldron.  I am working this off cloth and will attach it to the whole once all the surface stitching has been done

Step 1:

The backing is calico.  I tie-dyed a small piece of cotton for the central yoni-shaped heart of the cauldron.

Step 2:

Looking through my stash I came across this piece of cotton with all the lovely arches which I thought would work well for the rest of the cauldron, as per my sketch.  However, the colour is definitely not right, much too light and bright – I want earth colours – so:

Step 3:

I mixed up some blue and some yellow procion dyes to get a sludgy green and painted the arches fabric to see what would happen.  It paled somewhat once dry but I am happy enough with it – once stitching has been done to the surface the look  and the colour will change again.

Step 4:

This picture was taken outside and shows the colours a little better.  It is all tacked/basted and now ready for stitching.

There is movement again.

to stir or not to stir……….

Having played with the image of the Wild Mother a little I am not going to give myself any further options as I know what will happen – nothing! I shall get lost in the land of indecision and I am in no mood for stasis.

To stir:

or not :

I am very grateful to the comments, opinions and suggestions I have received – they are helping a lot.  I have never bothered to show process before but am so pleased I have done and am doing so – the rewards are great.  The comments give me more food for thought – take me back to my original premise and allow me to explore options I may not have seen…..thank you.

Completed Groundcloth

“Process” charts the making of this cloth which will be the ground upon which the story will unfold from hereon in.

It was completed by 24th December 2008 and is hand-pieced and dyed and measures 50″ x 60″.