Phew

Some things Just Don't Work...or at least, don't work as planned.  This mulberry paper book certainly didn't; I described it here .  Reader, I finished it.  And now, as I thought, the stitch has softened the paper to the point where it doesn't stand properly.  It lurches like a drunken sailor...

So...I ironed it.  And that made it worse.  No, you really don't want to see.  Here it is, flat.

I think it's boring.  It might have been better with darker thread, but I'm not even convinced by that.  I'm tempted to add darker purple stamped spirals to it, to balance out the colour...that might be interesting... but I'm not sure I'm ever going to like it.

I think my problem with it stems from the regularity of the stitched lines.  I don't do regular; it's not my style.  It seemed appropriate for this piece, given its size, but it has turned out looking like something someone else made.  Interestingly, while I had the iron out, I ironed this piece, which I finished some time ago, and which has been hanging round the workroom ever since, both here and in the rental.

It was inspired by old images of industrial Glasgow, though it could be any industrial city, really.  The base cloth is a section of a  piece of linen that I dyed a very long time ago, intending to make a jacket with it.  The shapes on it are of a heavy duty cloth that had been used as a clean up cloth by another artist.  I liked the colours, and begged it from her when she was finished with it.  The blues stand for the waterfront...the shapes, for machinery and buildings used for heavy industry. 

Like the book, above, this has fairly regular stitching....except that there's significantly more variety in the mark making, and whilst the stitch is important, it's not the dominant feature, which it is, in the book.  The stitch is part of a unified whole; it supports the applique units in telling a story.  The book has no story...and apparently, that's why I don't like it.

I like blogging; in talking to you folks about what I'm doing, I talk to myself about issues, challenges and how I feel.  What began as a way of connecting with other people, has become part of my process, a way of connecting with the work, and ultimately, myself.  It's really useful.