Unpicking Stitch...

...isn't something I do routinely.  Partly, that's because of the way I use stitch... I tend to use layers of stitch, so one wee blip doesn't cause me to unpick a line of stitching. Partly, I'm fairly flexible; I don't usually have something specific in mind, so the word 'wrong' doesn't really figure in my artistic vocabulary.  So it takes something seriously 'wrong' to make me unpick.  This, though, ticked all the boxes.

It started with one of Cara's paintings, this one, to be precise.

I like this one. I think it's to do with the amount of space there is between the elements.  Space intrigues me... so I did a couple of versions of my own, to see if I could work out what it was I liked about it.

My version is pared back even further.  It has the feeling of a landscape....a Norfolk landscape, all sky and flatness.   And at that point, I thought, textile.  And transparent cloth.  And that's when it started going to hell in a handcart.  Because my selection of transparent cloth is fairly limited...so I went with what I had.  The top section of this is great...the bottom...bleh...

Meet Blue Moon.  The top is a small piece of hand dyed silk organza, and that works pretty well. The bottom is also hand dyed silk, and looked okay before I applied it, when there was light coming through it....but it's just Too Dark.  The piece of ribbon and the stitch I added doesn't help, nor did the light coloured ribbon, or the silver paint I daubed it with, in the hope of making it just a bit lighter...sigh.

So that's what I'm unpicking.  I have absolutely no idea what I'll add in its place, but I do know it mustn't be dark.  I think I might hand paint some silk organza to use; I may not have that much of a selection of finished cloth, but I do have some silk for dyeing.  And we'll see how that goes.  Sadly, I can't remove the silver paint from the white cloth, so that, too needs to be thought through.  I also suspect that the square format  it's in isn't doing it any favours; it messes up the balance of the two elements... plenty of space, but in the wrong places (yes, it's a napkin...I use them for sketches).  It's a sketch; that's what it's for, of course, but I don't usually misjudge quite so badly.  Hey ho...onwards and upwards...