Well – I feel that I have spent enough time on this piece – not one of my better ones, now to decide:-
1) Plop in ready made frame
2) Have it framed.
Decisions, decisions!
Your comments are invited and welcome.
Click on image for a larger view.
Sometimes it is difficult to know when a piece is finished. Often when I think a piece is done – I put it out of sight for a while, then I can come back to it with fresh eyes and I will see any glaring omissions or imbalances.
As a working artist – I have to balance the amount of time I spend on a piece with the “asking price” and this piece is a good example of that.
I love hand stitching, especially seeding and french knots – I could seed and french knot until the cows came home, or until I make a hole in the end of my stitching finger. I know, I know – that’s why thimbles were invented. However, I have decided that I need a summer thimble and a winter thimble – my hands were so cold in the studio to-day that my thimble kept falling off.
So, when I wore a hole in my finger, I decided to stop the french knots and running stitches on this piece – to work at it anymore would just mean that I was going to pay myself about 6p an hour – assuming that it sells. In all honesty, on this piece, another few hours of hand stitching would not add to the work.
So when DO you decide when a piece is finished? I think for me there is a whisper in my head that says “enough” and I stop. The enough can be made up of many things, enough hours spent on one piece. To do more would be to “overwork” the piece. Enough, because suddenly I have ideas for the next piece and want to move on.
On reflection – I think it is easy to overwork a piece, my rule of thumb – is that I stand back from the work and squint at it. There is the fine line between the stitching looking spotty, or blurry – if nothing jumps out too harshly then the seeding and knotting are probably right and then you have probably reached the “Enough” point.
This is just popped into the frame with no mount-board or backing – just to give an idea of how it will look.
The other great thing about hand stitching is that it gives me time to think. To-day I was thinking how nice it would be to give this piece a name with “Flora” in the title – she is the goddess of flowers in Roman mythology, unfortunately, in the U.K. that word is associated with a well known brand of margarine now.
I dont know if it is flue or some other bug – but it has wiped me out for the past 4 days -
To-day I am vertical – but week as a kitten.
But I think I am about to collapse in the horizontal any second now
byeee
This is a very small detail of a development page of the wolf moon image posted a few days ago.
I was working on this image for the “travelling sketchbook” I do with Linda.
When I had finished the page – I scanned it to make a copy. But my scanner glass is so mucky with paint and fibre – that I had to edit it in photoshop to get rid of the bits of fluff around the edges of the picture.
As I had it blown up really large – I noticed this wonderful bit of texture. Sometimes little areas of texture blown up make wonderful starting points. I think I may print this bit off, to use as a background for a page in my art journal.
I want to thank Sharon and Shirley Anne for giving me a “You Make My Day Award” I am touched – and I appreciate it very much.
As I nominated a couple of folk on the 9th January post – I hope Sharon and Shirley will not mind too much if I do not pass it on at this time. But I would like to thank you all who continue to read and support my blog.
Today I sold this amulet, which I created in 2001.
A lady saw this piece at the craft fair last weekend, and loved it. During the week, she phoned to ask me if she could buy it for her daughter. But when I delivered it to her today – she hung it on her wall – and it looked very happy – so I think that for now – Spirit of the land will stay with her.
This amulet draws on both male and female symbolism
It is a distillation of both energies
And encompasses the elements of
Fire, Earth, Water and Air.
On the copper panel is the face of the Guardian Spirit,
The “Green Man’
The embodiment of the vibrant energy of life.
On the second panel,
The copper wire
Depicts a journey.
Wherever your life’s journey may take you,
The Spirit of the land protects and watches over you.
copyright Karen Hall
May 2001
Actually – the books themselves are so heavy and precious now – that we just exchange four pages at a time.
Linda and I have been friends, and artist colleagues for the past 20 + + years. However in July 2005 as we were both moving away from the area that we lived – we decided to keep in touch via sketchbooks.
Linda is the person I turned too whenever I was having artist “collie-wobbles” and these books have been a wonderful way to explore new directions, and still get frank feedback from a trusted friend.
My youngest son is safe and happy in Denmark and we have the dog back home after his operation to remove the saliva glands on one side.
He looks quite gruesome! So I wont be posting a picture of him. As well as a large shaved area around and under his neck and chin – for some reason the top of his head on one side has been shaved – around his ear – and above one eye – most strange – he look very vulnerable with a partially shaved head.
Apart from all the swelling and stitches he seems OK in himself – and he still searches the floor for every crumb of food that might have dropped by accident!
So as I was dog sitting to-day – to make sure that he did not scratch the stitches out – I was able to get on a bit in the studio with “Standing Stones”.
I don’t know what I think of this piece yet – although I really enjoyed working with it to-day!
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