emergence

A clue

I've been on the road these past couple of days. Took experimental cloth with me. Stitched on it some more. Left the camera cable at the town house. So still cannot show you how it's going just yet. But I'm enjoying the simplicity of it. Learning along the way.

This might give you a clue about my direction at the beginning of this year...

A digital bogolanfini cloth. Want to know more? Click here and create your own!

I really like this cloth & post from Deb Gorr

Experimenting with tradition

After thinking that 2011 would be a year of smallness for me... as in postage stamp size... cloth that I can manage... and manage to finish... yesterday, I came up with this base (aprox. 30 x 30 cm). I was thinking about golden. Not necessarily the shade itself. But, how, at around 3pm and onwards, things start to glow from within. As if they've managed to swallow chunks of the Sun's softer light.

This will be an experimental cloth. I have also been thinking again about cloth and thread traditions from different parts of the globe. I have no idea where this cloth is going next. It doesn't matter. It's an experiment! The base is a spin-off of the traditional 9-patch square, made up of several scraps of cloth that I created in previous experiments using natural dyes, as well as some recycled cottons and linens.

This morning, I began this section of reverse applique. A technique I've played around with abit over the past year, and really enjoy (although have still not perfected!) This section is made from a fairly thickly woven shot cotton (linen?). The darker shade being the right-side, the paler shade on the overlay (upper layer) being the reverse. Using both front and reverse of a cloth is usually a good way to achieve a relationship in tones. I like how this turned out, but it wasn't the easiest of cloths to use for this technique. I'm using a single strand of DCM embroidery thread and a simple buttonhole stitch to hold down the overlayed cloth before cutting into the pattern. I am trying to work loosely to gain a sense of folk tradition.

I'm not going to say anything else about this section, because I'm curious to hear your comments first. What does it make you think of?