Aesop Frame half-way point

I began the Aesop Mirror Frame in May 2021, with the wood pigeon,  in the top right hand corner, working left across the top then moving down the left hand side. It's a pleasant, meticulous all-consuming project.  

After the wood pigeon, 

came the squirrel  

and the pea hen before I put the project aside to work on some smaller, more pressing projects. 

I picked it up again in late March this year. After finishing a number of other projects I was ready for a longer project. I had started the woodpecker and finished that relatively quickly.

When I moved the hoop it was quickly evident that I should have taken the linen OUT of the hoop in the months it was idle! I can fix it by blocking - but a lesson nevertheless.

The next corner still went nicely into the hoop and I pressed on.

There will be a few touch-ups at the end but I'm very satisfied with this result. 

It brings me just beyond the half-way point and the end is in my sights. 

I moved into a 12" hoop for the next section, enabling me to fit the whole of the fox in (just). Although the tension is not as good as on an 8" hoop, it's much better to be able to see the whole figure.

I've embroidered the greenery and the frog. All set now to do the fox.

I hope to report soon on the last side and the finished product!

Mosaic Bag - as it was intended

I now have two bags from the Marie Wallin Mosaic Carpet Bag kit! After knitting one without understanding the principle of mosaic knitting (and creating a very useful if non-mosaic bag!) I have now finished the bag as intended. I had to rob a hand-warmer kit of a bit of wool in about three colours, but otherwise there was enough in the Mosaic kit for two bags.

It does look quite different - more compact as well as the texture difference. Here (left) is my progress on the base of the first Mosaic side against the base of the other bag.

Once I had the hang of it, the Mosaic technique was faster to knit - and very satisfying.

It still finished up a decent size and I decided , again, that it needed handles. I had a pair of circular bamboo handles that I decided to try.  I could have left much less of the handle above the bag, but it is sometimes handy to slip it over my shoulder. I'll see how they go and change - or remove - if they don't work.

They do tuck inside out of the way when not in use, so I'm hopeful they might work. I used a remnant of Ink and Spindle linen as lining.

The closure is a gumnut button gift from Tasmania that has been just waiting for this project.

Here are the two bags hanging together, showing something of the difference in overall size and the tightening of the pattern in the Mosaic style. There are about the same number of rows in both bags!

Lockdown embroidery- an awareness gained from Design Online

I usually avoid writing about things that involve my family. Sharing what I do is one thing, involving others quite another.  I've chosen to write about the process of this project because it demonstrates clearly what I learned from Barbara Mullan's  Design Online Course with the Guild last year, and others may benefit from that. 

Part of my family was recently in Covid lockdown for 14 days when one family member contracted Covid and the family decided against insisting he isolate alone in his room. This decision doubled the isolation time for family members.

Towards the end of their isolation I had an idea to commemorate their decision and time of trial. I wondered if I could create a hoop embroidery as a memento.

I made a quick sketch late at night, found some linen and threads before I went to bed and the next morning set up my hoop and got stuck in. I also went out and bought a wooden hoop to display the final product.

I sketched it in pencil on to my linen. The hoop provides a manageable space in which to design and the wording defines initial eye movements. I simplified the words as I added them to the hoop.

 As I practised my Quaker stitch on the words, I realised my tense was wrong, so unpicked the 'd' to bring it to the present. As I added figures I also realised that I was projecting separation and isolation, when the essential factor in the length of isolation was the choice to not separate one member from the family, 

so I added 'together' right in the centre of the design ( where, luckily, there was space!).

I was then able to fill in the remaining spaces with small motifs ( like bees and musical notes) relevant to the family. Colour balance similarly emerges as I try things out.  I did quite a bit of unpicking as I didn't like the effect. 

The final adjustment was adding names. This was not an original intention, but it seemed important that the 'we' was not vague and anonymous, but named. 

This is a very personal item that has strong privacy requirements, so I am not going to discuss the content further. 

What I learned from Design Online was that I design as I go from a concept, not from a detailed planning process. I need to keep the concept in my head, see the story emerging, and keep modifying and shaping until the project gets close to the conceptual ideal in my head. It gives me a lot of confidence to know that's a successful way to do things. 

I finished the piece by mounting it in the display frame - gathering and lashing the back of the linen and then adding a backing piece. Green had become the unifying colour so that was my choice of backing fabric.

I've decided that these are the kind of projects I like most - targeted, topical, personal - and applying the skills I've learned over many years, from many knowledgeable women, to tangible, specific, manageable items.   And that's good to know.

Bush Sentinelles Experiment 4.

The fabric for this one arrived safely on the first of a 7 day isolation period because I was a close COVID contact. 

The fabric came brilliantly packaged - simply placed inside a cardboard envelope. It travelled well, fitted easily through my letterbox slot and didn't create waste that will last decades! 

I had begun embroidering the figure before the fabric arrived, using a more solid fill on the leaves than the previous ones and trending to reds rather than golds in the blossoms.

I had, this time, ordered enough fabric to comfortably make a 60 cm cushion cover. I had plenty to make an envelope closure, but chose to put in a zip.

I cut out and appliqued the body of the Sentinelle on to the cover, cut away the halo and around the leaves in the coronet.Then the real work and challenge began. 

I wanted this one to use the red-blue end of the sun spectrum in contrast to the gold-orange end of the second experiment. I used a range of threads - some silks, some perle 5 & perle 8 cotton and quite a bit of DMC Etoile - my favourite at the moment.

It took quite a while. I used a 12" hoop, but even so I needed to work it in several hoop moves, leaving a thread hanging at the end of each ray to pick up on a later move.

I added the headband part way through the rays to see how it fitted together. The colour in this photo is far too pink, but I can't correct.

It is hard to capture the impact and contrast of these two versions of the Bush Sentinelle. The background fabric does, as I expected, change behind the predominantly gold or  red thread.  It's a polished cotton and has a lovely sheen, especially in light. 

I took this as the late afternoon light shone through my west window.

The four experiments are now completed. I don't have 4 x 60 cm cushions to show them properly together.

I think they look good, and tell a story. I hope that I have not broken any taboos in creating them. The Sentinelles are European-inspired figures. Does the addition of Australian flora and fauna to the design link them sufficiently to an Australian landscape? 

I have tried to blend the figures into their backgrounds. My researches into Goddess embroidery has further convinced me that both now and for as long a time as we have archaeological evidence, borrowing and adapting  in art and craft, as in language and ideas, is the norm. 

There is also evidence that solar goddess figures feature in the mythology of most cultures, over thousands of years,  including First Nation stories, as, almost universally, focus for metaphors of meaning shift from earth to the sky. I did not begin thinking of this as a Goddess figure, but see it that way now.

I hope these contribute to discussion, connection  and conservation.

Bush Sentinelle Experiment 3.

As with the first two figures, I worked the body of this one in a hoop. I kept the blossom in dark pinks and the caps in brown-grey. On the leaf side, this time I worked the leaves in dense fly stitch to get complete coverage. I was tempted to add some pink stab stitches on the right side, but took advice from a Guild friend and left it.                               

I appliqued the figure on to the background fabric (Bush Plum Ecru by Polly Wheeler Napurrula )so that the head was centred in a large pattern circle. It's what attracted me to this fabric. As with Experiment 2, I cut the halo ring away and fussy-cut the leaves inside the halo. I was attracted to the green stamen on the fabric and positioned the head to pick them up.                                         

I didn't have a stitch or colour plan in mind but worked it out as I went. I satin stitched the leaves lengthwise, couching them down with sparce fly stitches. Around their base I added a couple of rows of chain stitch.

The 'gems', as before, were worked in padded satin stitch. I used gimp around the face and between the gems. It really was a matter of 'how does this need to look?' then 'what would give me that effect?'

This is how that looked on the fabric.   

 I managed to construct a 60cm cushion cover with a fold-over on the back, rather than a zip, but was concerned that it might gape open without a fastener of some sort. I was reluctant to add buttons in case they were uncomfortable on a cushion designed to be leaned or sat on. After discussing it with Margaret Morgan at the Guild, I came home, used a small piece of left-over fabric to make loops and settled on two beaded brooches as buttons.

I had bought these at the National Museum of the American Indian in NYC around 2009. They are hand-made and had safety pins as a means of attachment. I removed the safety pin and stitched them on. 

I think they look quite good, they are fairly soft if you make contact with them and I like the First Nations connection.

This is not as spectacular as Experiment 2, but I am satisfied with it.  I feel comfortable with the merging of fabric designed and printed by Indigenous artists, this European-influenced figure and a koala. 

I have tried to think, work and construct it respectfully. I hope it works that way for others.