And Rites of Passage is completed too

I added a more traditional binding on this one, which made the archway more into a window than a doorway. In the end, I didn't stitch over the binding. I called it A Samoan Perspective. I'm very pleased with how this one has turned out. Just have to post it off on Tuesday, after the holiday, and I can turn my mind to other things.

I think I've finished...

I think I've finished the stitching on the Rites of Passage piece. I just have to finish it for presentation now. Tomorrow's task.. Here's how it looks.


And, Carol, I printed out backs for four postcards today. I like my postcards to have proper postcard backs. But clearly I have a gremlin in my workroom, causing trouble! I've done postcard backs before, no trouble, but would this do what I wanted it to do today? It would give me two the same per page but when it was offered two different ones on the same page, it decided they needed resizing down by a third. Grr. I am so used to finding I have done something silly myself but finally I realised it was the software having a bad day, and worked out another way to do it. So I have my backs printed, and just need a little time to attach them.

Slow week

This week I've fallen into a slump. Partly physical, partly a lack of time, and partly reaching the moment of frustration that I usually reach at some point, when I really don't like what I've done so far and wonder if it will ever be worth finishing. I'll press on, because I know I usually end up liking what I've done at the end, but it's frustrating.

OK, this is what I did on the weekend:


Cute, aren't they? The big one is my baby, the little one is grandchild number 1, administering a very sloppy kiss. It was great to visit them and see how the grandkids have grown in the short time since I last saw them.

And this is what I did this week on Rites of Passage - coming along nicely:


I've made the colours very intense and rich, so it's recognisable as a Polynesian island scene but also looks a little bit strange and unrealistic. Well, that's the plan....

And this is the postcard I'm making for the Sailing to Byzantium challenge on Design Bytes Down Under.

Postcard 6in x 4in

It's a motif on a pier in the church of St Polyeuktos from ancient Byzantium. I looked at lots of photos of Byzantine art, and decided the things I liked best were the architectural motifs. I played around with a lot of different motifs, and finally decided on this one. This is the line drawing printed onto soluble paper and stitched with dark navy thread. Tomorrow, I'll show you what it looks like with the paper removed (right now it's still wet so the colours are deeper than normal). I still have a few things to do tomorrow. The motif is stitched onto two layers of fabric, backed with Timtex for stiffening. The bottom layer is silk, the upper layer a synthetic fabric, in colours that reminded me of Byzantine icons. Tomorrow, I plan to burn back the synthetic a little with a soldering iron, to give the distressed look that the icons have from so much fervent handling during 1000-1500 years of worship. Hopefully, the underlying silk will show through. I want to brush on some gold highlights too. Hurry, hurry, it's due the end of the month!

Progress on all fronts

I haven't had as much time in the workroom as I'd like but I have made progress on all three pieces in the last few days. Like Honey from the Rock has more of its purple added and I rectified a few areas where shadows weren't quite right. I still have a couple more places like that to fix, and a lot more stitching to add.

Like Honey from the Rock 18in x 12in

Rites of Passage is assembled, and I began stitching it today. I'm actually finding this one a bit of a challenge to get just the right colours. I want to brighten the colours, so the scene looks a little alien, but not so much that it stops looking like a real place.

Rites of Passage 6in x 6in

Mistrise has had wadding added and I've started stitching. This one will have a lot less intensive stitching than the other two, and it's quite hard to remember that I'm doing something a lot more like traditional machine quilting and a lot less like embroidery! I don't want to lose the ethereal effect in the clouds, so I don't want to have to stitch them heavily to balance heavy stitching on the hills. The stitching isn't that clear in the photograph - I've only done a little on the nearer hills so far.

Mistrise 18in x 12in

Rites of Passage

I didn't get time to stitch today, but I did do some more planning work on the Rites of Passage piece. Like everything else, it's due on 2 Jun. I'd already decided on the image of the fale, to represent our time living in Samoa. It's such an archetypical Polynesian image! But I wanted to do more to represent how living in that country changed me, and why this image is representative of a rite of passage. I played with adding words and adapting the image in various ways, but I wasn't happy with anything I came up with. Finally, I had a brain wave. The Samoan image does not have to be the whole 6in square. Incredible! I had adapted the original 6in x 4in image to a square, but I could use overlays, strips, anything around it. (Sometimes things are so obvious, once you've gone all round the gardens!)

I finally decided I wanted to emphasise the sense of passage, of change, which is what the time in Samoa means to me. Doorways! But what kind of doorway? There are practical difficulties, as most everyday doorways are tall and skinny. I'll need a special sort of doorway, then. I hunted through our photos (and with two photographers in the family, these are not few), until I found this image of an archway in Richmond Castle in England.


I cropped and played with the image in PhotoPaint, to leave me just the archway. I superimposed the result onto my fale image.


I like the juxtaposition of a very European doorway on an island scene, which expresses some of the dissonance I felt living in a third world country, in an alien culture. It's hard to set aside your assumptions, that western worldview, and see what is really happening around you. At the same time, instead of being in the dominant cultural tradition as you are at home, you are the outsider, the palagi. It gave me a huge understanding of what it is like to be the outsider, the migrant, the one who is different, in our own culture.

Rites of Passage

Yes, it's another piece I'm working on! This one has a longer lead-time, so it's been percolating along in the background. One of my "land" groups, ATASDA, has a stand at the Quilt and Craft Fairs and this year, we have been asked to make 6in-square artworks on the theme of Rites of Passage. Big theme, little space! The pieces will be displayed on the stand and then perhaps travel as one of our travelling suitcase exhibitions out in the country.

I decided that, rather than focus on more generic rites of passage, I'd focus on specific things that changed my life or sent me off on a different path. I think there might be several works in this theme. One very significant experience was living in Western Samoa for two years in the early eighties. It was my first time outside Australia, first time on a plane, first time experiencing other cultures. As well as the local Samoans, we met and made friends with people from all over the world. For a young woman from an isolated country town, it was an incredibly broadening experience!

From our three volumes of photographs, I chose three that seemed especially typical of what we saw and did. Two turned out to be unsuitable, leaving just one image to play with. (I am always better when not provided with too much choice!) Today I began playing around with the image, to see where it takes me.