And no, I’m not talking about an animation by Disney. Just a project I’ve been working on.
Just like painting, before every masterpiece in stitch you face a blank canvas. Every piece of fabric is precious and could be ruined in the first stab of the needle. My background are so important. I’ve experimented with di-sublimation, water-colours, acrylics, sun-printing, batik, indigo, rust and other natural dying processes, acid dyes, collograph and now lino-print.
I find a joy in it. I remember struggling to cut out a fish at middle school. We used real lino. Now with soft-cut freely available, it is a slow mindful task, gentle carving your way through the design.
This piece, there are two separate lino-cuts, the tree, where I feel I’ve taken the stitching too far. I could have cut the tree ot of fabric and simply stitch the boughs. The simple deliberate lines that a lino block print creates are the real delight in a lino print. The robin, retains many of his tell tail lino lines, even a small fault mark and I’ve simlply accentuated his red breast and yellow legs in stitch. How else would you have recognised his as a robin?
Can you see the difference?
Stitches used – back stitch, running stitch, stem stitch, Long & Short, woven wheel stitch, stain stitch, french knots.
Inks – cranfield safewash, relief inks
Fabrics – offcuts from my dressmaking stash and scrap pieces from an old bed sheet for printing on.
Threads – DMC – 6 stranded cotton, and black dressmakers polyester thread.
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