ragged

in a week filled with delightful family visits and a whole lot of cake there wasn't much creative time... a few stolen moments whilst waiting for a baking timer to go off was about all there was

through whiffs of chocolate, lemon and carrot cakes baking I worked through some stitch sampling ideas for these 

a while back I layered up some pieces of cloth I had painted with earth pigments to see if I could come up with something somewhat representative of the pilings that line one shore of the Yukon River in Whitehorse

painting with earth pigments is a messy, unpredictable business but one that yields an interesting look to the cloth, a roughness, that you just can't get with traditional dye techniques - at least I never have

this week in the in-between times I added some stitching to two I had prepared, it would add some interesting details inspired by the way the pilings have weathered over time

trying a few different types and thicknesses of thread yielded similar results - the threads sat on top of the cloth and didn't look at all like an integral part of the pilings 

I tried cutting the fabric... some simple scissor cuts and others where after the initial cut I went back with the scissors and trimmed some of the cut edges further creating a very narrow opening

then I tried laying long stitches in the cuts

top right are dark stitches on top of the fabric

bottom right are cuts with thread stitched within them

I'm pleased with the cuts and think there is something there to work further with, perhaps layering dark (or very light) fabric beneath the cut and allowing it to show through, eliminating the need for stitching?

those ideas investigated,  I moved on to stitching a dark thread along the edge of one of the layers

reasonably successful, as seen below

the last thing I tried was cutting notches into the lower edge of the upper fabric, where the dark one would show through from below

again, there's promise here

the pigment paint does help hold the warp and weft threads together a bit, as if they were lightly glued but I tore these (it tears well, depending on the weave of the base cloth) so they're a bit frayed but can get some definition when I want it

aside from that, the sample below was the first I worked on and it's entirely stitched

I love this small piling but am not at all happy with the stitching so as I'm only showing it here to emphasize why I'm not keen on the look of the stitched lines;  the stitching will all be removed tonight

what I am excited about though is the effect I see when I lay it on other pigment cloth as a background

this first one is on a pale grey that had Chocolate Lace flowers laid on it during the painting process

the visual texture that transferred to the cloth is beautiful, like granular ice

and the next two are on a different piece, one I did, attempting a nod to Turner's skies - it wasn't that successful an interpretation but the cloth itself has an interesting texture 

interestingly, these next two photos were taken just a few minutes apart but the first is rather grey whilst the second has a more bluish cast

I couldn't decide so I posted both!

so... a few discoveries, some things to try and a fresh inspiration to paint more cloth

busy days ahead