resisting resistance

twice in my artistic journey I've been overwhelmingly captivated by something I've seen whilst out in nature

something that inspires me so greatly it grabs hold of my creative thinking and refuses to let go

the first, a frigid early spring morning, a few days after a wind storm blew through our town

branches yanked from nearby trees lay strewn over the lakeshore, many frozen in place, caught in the shore ice that melted and re-formed daily as part spring's fickle rhythm

the second time was a phenomenon also caused by wind - the icy windrows that formed on the surface of the shore ice of the Yukon River during an extremely windy snowstorm 

over the years I have worked with both of these events though the windrows along the Yukon River continue to hold my attention two years later

in part because there is so much I want to explore and so many mediums I'd like to do that in

and then there's the growing pile of already begun explorations that need finishing

this week I finally faced the one I began with... it has sat for almost two years now, an overwhelming fear of messing it up holding me back

I was so pleased with the effect of the addition of tiny textural stitches scattered here and there near the main lines that ran from one side of the cloth to the other and though it was going well and with each area completed my delight grew and grew I was still sure eventually I would do something irrevocable that ruin the work entirely

and so it sat

this week I finally got fed up with the silliness of it all, picked it up and finished the rest of the textured stitching over the course of the next two evenings

I want to finish it as a pouch, but as this was meant to be a sample for my sketchbook the fabric is rather small

a strip of ink dipped linen, also from two years ago has been attached to the lower edge and solved the size issue nicely... I have just a few last stitches to add along the edge and I'll be able to bring this to completion

finally

interestingly, the more I turned over the work to secure the thread the more I came to like the stitching on the reverse... it was a constant effort whilst doing the stitching of the ice lines to keep a random, irregular look to them which I never really did achieve

but on the wrong side it looks exactly like what I had wanted

there are one or two more iterations of this in my future, and with at least the first one I'll be working the stitching from back to front 

and both will be made a good deal bigger

now that I'm pushing myself through my ever-present fear of messing things up perhaps I can make some headway in breaking my habit of always working too small

Take care,

Jillayne