Fossilised.

Back to hand stitch, and the piece I showed you here... The advantage of working small (this piece is roughly A4 size), is that it can lie beside me on the sofa, while I decide what to do with it.  Of course, the disadvantage is that the cats lie on it, don't they, Merlin?  I found myself drawn to the random marks I could see, and stitched them :

That was the easy bit... deciding what to do to create the whole of the shape, which reminded me of a fossil (hence the title), was a bit more challenging.  Another hard line didn't seem to be appropriate. Mainly because 'that purple morass', as I called the area to the right of the figure, was still there, and needed to be worked with, to minimise its impact.  I finally decided to use blanket stitch.

It gives the firm line I wanted to delineate the area, but pulls the eye in to the mass, rather than outwards.  The whole area reminds me of a fossil we have, somewhere, Orthocerus Nautiloid.  I love fossils, I find them fascinating.  I've made one or two pieces based on fossils, but this was a surprise...

And I'm going to leave it at that.  No more stitch.  I don't think it would add anything, to stitch the background, which is quite interesting as it is, plenty of texture and visual interest.  Anyone who has attended one of my printmaking workshops, will know that I talk about 'leaving space for stitch'.  There needs to be a strong visual justification for adding stitch to a print, not just, because it's a textile piece, or, because that's my style... and in my view, there just isn't one here. 

Another one bites the dust....on to the next hand stitch piece...