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We've been travelling for the last couple of weeks, so there was no time to be in the studio.
We were in France. The first couple of days were spent in Normandy, in Bayeux and I finally had the chance to wander through the Museum to view 'La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde', after all these years during which I have frequently studied the pages of David Wilson's magnificent book on the story related in this 1000 year old embroidery.
The last week was spent in Paris, with family, a reunion of sorts with the focus of a posthumous celebration for my father-in-law, whose courageous work during difficult times during the war was recognized and honoured.
We returned to the forest last Wednesday and I quickly organized myself to start work on the iris. It's not that easy and I'm not sure yet about the effect of my work, but I am enjoying the experimentation with various types of silk thread, Pearsalls, Pipers and some chinese silk, Eterna.
This project is also a departure from my usual style given that it is so dense in its design. Usually I work on simple lines and single subjects suspended on the linen. I am having difficulty seeing the final picture in my mind despite the fact that I have done a watercolour study and thought a lot about the technical interpretation. I am however enjoying the freedom of letting the colours and the various silks take me where they seem to want to go. The result will surprise me; hopefully in a good way.
To carry on with my post earlier today, given that I have lots of time to enjoy my embroidery without the usual constraints of the usual rhythm of a day at home, I have also started a more difficult silk piece. The design is inspired by an early 18th watercolour sample by Anna Maria Garthwaite as a suggestion for a custom order at the silk weaving mills of the Soieries de Lyon. The flower forms of the original painting are exquisite and a great challenge to try to transform the painted stylized forms into surface embroidery on fine linen.
I am working on optic white Belgian linen with Piper's 90 denier silk floss. As you can see from the second photo, the thread is not much thicker than a hair and I like to work with just one thread.
I have chosen a palette of vegetable dye colours, ambers, moss greens, and some indigo blues. I'll add a photo of the colour selection tomorrow.
This project is a pleasing change from the cross stitch I am doing simultaneously. One gives respite from the other.
And I even have a third project underway which I keep in my travel bag which comes on the plane with me.. maybe tomorrow I'll post that project and why I have no excuse to keep my fingers busy wherever I happen to be.
I love to keep busy and particular like to have a way to measure the passage of time. Embroidery provides this measure in a very tangible way and this blog helps also. Thanks for reading, loyal followers.
