Spiralling

You may remember my last post where I showed you the spiral I had drawn and written.

It now looks like this:

The next stage is to put a wadding and a backing and then stitch.  What colour should I stitch the spiral?  I think it might be grey.

Come back to see what happens!

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Spiral

Last week I introduced you to my poem Hollow and the initial work I had done for the textile piece.  I'm a bit further on now.  I looked up on the internet how to draw a spiral without a compass.

I measured out the 1.5 inch and then 2 inch distances and made marks on the paper.  I used a thumbtack to hold a piece of ribbon and made holes at the right distances to push the pencil through.  It did get a bit messy at times because I forgot how to do the second set of semicircles!

However it all worked out in the end and I was able to cut the spiral out.  I mapped out the words of the poem using 3 different pens and two colours of Gutta.  The copper writing will need to be bigger but I didn't want to use too much on this trial in case I ran out on the fabric.

Next I needed to draw the spiral onto the calico, but first I had to wait for the Gutta to dry.

I drew the spiral on to calico.  I had to cut the spiral in pieces so that I could draw more easily.

Then I wrote the words with the pens and the Gutta. The copper coloured writing didn't turn out any bigger.  It was hard enough as it was!

I'm at Littleheath Barn for a Studio Day when I plan to paint the dye onto the fabric.

Thanks for being her today
Bernice

On to the next thing!

I finished the binding on my Fettered/Unfettered hanging.  The binding doesn't show.

So, on to the next thing.  In a recent Theme Poetry workshop the theme was holes.  Halfway through Sara-Jane's presentation I was convinced I was going to write about caving and potholing and how I can't even cope with watching it on television because of the thought of getting stuck in a tiny hole!  However the following was what I wrote!

Hollow

Did I dig the hole myself?
Not an embarrassing hole
where my words put me
in the wrong. Where someone said
‘Put down the spade!’

Did I dig the hole myself?
Deep inside myself
Like a big black dog
scraping up the earth
to bury a flimsy bone.

Did I dig the hole myself?
A place to hide
Where darkness reigns
and melancholy rules.
An unkind space of desperation.

Did I dig the hole myself?
Perhaps. But circumstance
brings desolation and woefulness.
An encouraging word, a hand outstretched
bring a flicker of hope and light.

I started to think about how I might make this in a textile piece.  My initial thought was to make a very large logcabin style patchwork hanging. This version starts with the poem's first line on the outside.

But then I thought about how you spiral down into depression and the long route back. TIn this version the first line starts in the dark middle.

I've since been playing with different pens and media to see which will show up when the fabric is dyed.  This was using Posca pens.  The yellow pen doesn't show up when the Golden Yellow procion dye is added. The middle colour pen is actually copper but it doesn't show up correctly in the photo.

This series is using Copic pens

I tired writing with diluted fabric paint with a nozzle bottle which gave really poor results.  I also tried with a paintbrush.  Another experiment was using Acrylic Ink with the dropper that came with the bottle of ink and that gave an even worse result.

I was doing all these experiments at Littleheath Barn.  The main thing I was going to try was Gutta - but I left it at home.

Back home I tried the Gutta.  I could write fairly well with the tube which has a nozzle.  However the darkest procion dye I had was Ultramarine.  However the gold Gutta shows up on the Golden Yellow procion dye.

I also tried the Gutta on leftover fabric that was already dyed.

I think might use different pens for the different areas of the writing.  Something to ponder in the next few days.

Thanks for being here today.
Bernice