Whispers 2 - Round 1

Those of you have read my previous posts will know that I was part of the Chinese Whispers Group and in February we held an exhibition of our work. We have have now started the second 'round' of Chinese Whispers but in a slightly different format to the first one.

As before we are all creating our first piece of work based on any theme and using any technique, only this time the original pieces will be larger. Another difference is that we are going to show each other our first pieces with only the subsequent pieces being kept secret and in fact we have already shown each other our work-in-progress. Except for Sue who has shown her finished piece!  The other 4 members of the group will create a piece of work inspired by the original larger pieces. These 'inspired-by' pieces will be roughly 1/4 of the size of the original pieces. My first piece (above) is/will be 26X40 inches and so the other members of the group will create a piece which is  40 X 61/2 inches portrait, which I think is a challenging size but  I don't need to worry as I don't need to do this one!

The photograph above shows work-in-progress, with pin heads visible if you look closely. Here is a close-up of a section of the piece before very much stitching has been done.

I have used the grid thermofax that I mentioned in my previous post to create my piece. I started with black fabric and used discharge paste to remove the colour to a greater or lesser extent. I over dyed a small strip of fabric with rust orange and created a horizon line and layered the fabric adding wadding and a backing cloth and added additional detail with stitch.

My initial plan was to add the seeding stitches to the biggest black areas but I have now decided that it would be better to have the seeding stitches in all the black areas. Let me just remind you that this piece is 40 X 26 inches....that's a lot of stitching but it has to be done. I know that I won't be happy unless I sew all the black sections. The deadline is the end of the May!  The thought of all the stitching still to do, fills me with dread. Strange really as I enjoy handstitching, so isn't it a good thing that there's lots more to do?  

Tomorrow I am off to see the 62 Group exhibition at  the Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall in Manchester with my good friend Helen. I'm looking forward to a catch-up, the exhibition and looking around the museum which I think will be interesting in it's own right. No prizes for guessing what my next post will be about.