Finishing Touches...

...are often easier and less than we think.  Here's the finished piece, the development of which I showed you here.  I said it needed stitch...

...and now it has it.  Much less of it than I'd thought.  I originally set out to stitch all the way round the piece.  I found a variegated hand dyed perle which had all the colours in the piece in it, including the tannin stains in the background.  The lovely curving line was complete chance, but when I looked at it, I decided there really wasn't any need for any more.  I did contemplate adding three more at the bottom, but thought it would be gilding the lily.

Knowing when to stop is essential, and often very difficult, particularly when you have more ideas.   That usually means that there's a need to explore more within a series format, rather than that you need to add more to the particular piece you're working on.  Ultimately, it's all about intention, as I've already said elsewhere, in a conversation about a piece of work made by someone else.  Part of my intention when I work is to keep things as simple as possible, while expressing whatever it is that I'm trying to say. 

I'm happy with this, now.  Yes, I could melt the lutradur a bit more, but it's a risk: if I melt too much, it'll just look silly, and as it's not distracting from anything, it's a risk I'm not prepared to take.  Perfection, as I've said before, is the best you can do on the day, and that is constantly changing as you learn more, and become more confident.  Sometimes discretion truly is the better part of valour.

Unintentional

...well, it was.  I was working on a completely different piece, when I was left with a long bit of red/orange thread, too long to discard.  So I went to work on a second piece, and found myself finishing it almost before I knew what I was doing. 

Yes, it's another monoprint, much looser than the work I've been showing you.  It didn't originally have the red circle, but it needed something, and that seemed to be what it needed.  The stitch is a lot looser, too, mostly straight stitch but with some cross stitch at top and bottom.  Once again, I've stitched in order to support the brush strokes of the paint, for the most part.  And I've only used one colour of thread....couldn't be simpler.

It strikes me that all these pieces are connected by this idea of simplicity, of paring everything down, not adding more than is absolutely necessary.  I initially intended to add stitch to that red circle, but decided that it simply didn't need it; it's a strong enough mark to stand as it is, without cluttering it up with stitch. 

The actual piece is a bit wider than I'm showing you here.  It was my intention to crop it, but I haven't yet cut anything.  Which is just as well, because I have the feeling that I need to include a bit more on that right side.  The bottom mark continues along into white space, with no stitch.  It gives the piece an airiness, a sense of space, that this image doesn't give.  So I've learned something today.  Less is only more when it works.

And now I need to go back to the first piece I was working on, but that will have to wait til tomorrow.

More Simplicity...

is sometimes the only option.  Take a look at this...

The eye reads it as a landscape...and the stitch supports it, small and narrow at the back, wider and larger at the front, to give a dimensional effect, and some random stitching in the 'sky'.  I had intended to add some applique, to suggest a standing stone, but actually...it's fine as it is.  I did try the applique, and that was fine, too, but different...and I prefer this version, so here it is.

And you may remember, I cut a piece of cloth in half, here, and created a landscape with it.  I struggled with the second half of the cloth...and in the end, added an orange circle, to give it a focal point....and struggled some more.  In the end, I took some blue thread, and stitched it randomly...

It's a landscape too, I think: a very different type of landscape, much more abstract, no apparent horizon line...but nonetheless...  The dark marks are closer to a dark turquoise than you see them here, but this was the best I could manage, so... I'm still not sure about it, but the stitch has improved it, somewhat.  In this, the actions I've taken are simple, the piece itself, less so.  But I rather like it, nevertheless.  Who says simple has to be the same every time?

KISS, KISS...

...but not necessarily of the smoochy variety...  Keep It Simple, Stupid is one of those annoying acronyms from the world of business.  And you don't get much simpler than the image below.  Dye printed on white prepared cotton, using the cheapest, simplest and most readily available 'stamp'... my own hand.

The one thing that everyone says after one of my classes is...but it's so simple.  Err... yes.  Who said it had to be complicated or difficult?  The secret is, there is no secret.  Use what there is to hand (no pun intended!), try it and see for yourself. 

It's particularly interesting to look at this cloth close up, when the hand shapes disappear, and what is seen is just some interesting marks...

 

If I hadn't already told you that these were finger marks, you might not have seen them that way...but I did, and now, I suspect, you will have difficulty seeing them as anything else, such is the power of the human mind when it comes to interpreting context and content.  But it's still the best piece of cloth I've made in the past couple of days, so I'm a happy person!  What do you think?  Do you like it, too?

KISS...

is the order of the day with these small pieces. It stands for 'keep it simple, stupid', and is good advice for anyone, along with the idea that less is more. This is a struggle for me...I do a lot of quilting on most pieces, though more recently, I've been aiming to give the impression that I'm drawing with thread, rather than quilting or stitching. I rarely ever stitch for pattern, preferring to create texture and/or line. I'm learning, though, that it's difficult to get texture out of canvas, so will stick with Evolon when printing for stitch. Whilst I have to prepare the Evolon, I much prefer the quilted result, though canvas is okay for line work.

This image, though, does show a bit of texture, which isn't really surprising given that there is a lot of stitch in a relatively small area. It hasn't distorted the canvas, one of the advantages of working with a stiffer cloth than usual. I did decide not to add any more stitch, though; I thought it would make the piece far too fussy if I did. See what you think. And I don't think I need to identify the flower for you...

I sat today and stitched a pile of these small pieces, no bigger than 5" square. Tomorrow, I'll cut mounts for them, and see how they look. If I'm happy, they'll go onto my Etsy shop, which I intend to reopen next week or so (yes, I really am feeling better!). And I'm thinking that some of the images, scaled up, might make nice tshirts, if just for me, so I've opened a Zazzle account, to try it out. Might make some personalised mugs for Christmas presents!