The Real Work?

Two different people said two different things, yesterday.  One asked what I made.  The other said that she was concentrating her limited energy on things that were really important.  The combination made me wonder...what is the real work?  Where am I going with all of this?  I've been easing back into textile work, making a quilt here, as a gift, finishing a UFO there....but it doesn't feel like 'real' work.  With that in mind, I sat down and stitched this.  It's called 'Flow'. 

The pink in the image is not real; it's reflecting my cutting mat, through the two layers of lightweight Lutradur which make up two sides of the 'sandwich'; the 'filling' is scrap threads from my friend Clare's loom.  Just before the ME, I was starting to put work together for a possible book, called 'Constructed Cloth'.  I have no desire to weave; too precise and repetitive for me, doesn't suit my personality.  I do, however, being a control freak, wish to have a hand in every stage of the making process, and it turns out that it's not enough to dye the cloth, hence this small piece. 

Here's a detail of the stitch.  I started out experimenting; when I've made this type of constructed cloth before, I focused on circles, just as you can see at the top of the piece.  The middle section of this piece has long curving lines with occasional circles in it.  Overall, it made me think of a river, hence the title, and I added circles top and bottom, to suggest pebble-covered banks.

I then trimmed off the excess, roughly, to see what it looks like.  Not entirely convinced that worked.... I've put it on a dark fabric to let you see it properly.  The colour of the piece comes entirely from the threads sandwiched between the white lutradur layers, very delicate.  I may hit it with a heat gun to expose some of the threads, which would give areas with slightly stronger colour,   It's very small; roughly 11" by 4"; it would actually make a really pretty purse, perhaps that's the answer.

It may not be all that successful, but it does help to defiine what the real work is... intense stitch, transparency, experimentation.  At least it leads to an interesting life.  Incidentally, there's a bit about constructed cloth here; apparently not one of my better days.