What's in a Name?

The naming of a piece of work is always something I find thought provoking and interesting.

Sometimes the name comes first - I will hear or read a phrase and immediately it invokes the idea of a piece of art. Other times - as in this case - I was working to a brief "In a country churchyard" and the name of the piece is still undecided.

While working on the big piece - in my mind I was calling it "Fabric of Life" - however I like this title so much that I really want to do a series of work with this title - or use it as the theme for an exhibition.

I have been toying with variations on journeys and songs - as the piece has a "journey line" in it - which is a theme I enjoy but nothing I thought about was really right.

Friends came around this evening to have a look at the art before I submit it for selection tomorrow. We were all playing with thoughts and ideas - what the piece was saying to us as individuals. Trying to find the appropriate name.

One of the group said "Sacred Mysteries" and I knew that was right - Again for me it is an internal click - I suppose like putting in the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle; Click the jigsaw is finished; Click the piece is named "Sacred Mysteries". The title says everything I want the piece to express, and I am happy.

The Gift for a Friend
This piece is now finished, and it is called "The Gift" (Size 20cm x 20cm)
below is the finished piece, and some details.

THE GIFT

The embroidery has been mounted onto a board which has been covered with a copy of the service sheet. I have aged this by washing it over with a wet tea bag. Then when this was dry I washed it over with a mix of Gesso and Parchment coloured acrylic paint.

Detail showing ExtravOrganza scroll

The scroll was made by printing a quotation onto ExtravOrganza with an inkjet printer.

Detail showing the service sheet background
(in Welsh)

A Gift for a friend.

Rain again today - so another studio day as no gardening!

I wanted to make a piece as a gift for my cousin who became a priest on Sunday - and I wanted to complete the piece in one day. I nearly achieved it - but I have got a few finishing touches to do tomorrow.

I have taken the angel element from the large piece - as this angel is meaningful to both of us.

For the background I layered dyed pieces of tissue and tissuetex left over from the last project. I bonded these layers together using bondaweb. As I really did not like the colours - I was left with very dark blue and acid yellow - I over painted the bonded papers with golden and pearl acrylic paint - this left me with quite a strange plasticy surface - but that was fine. I then cut an arch shape out of the bonded papers.

I printed the angel onto ExtrvOrganza and then bondawebed the organza onto heavyweight vylene - which had all ready been coloured with a dilute mix of fabric dye and gold acrylic paint.

I placed the tissue layers over the angel do that she was sitting in the arch - then machine zig-zaged around the arch in gold thread. Then I did my usual thing of putting the whole lot onto water soluble fabric as a support while I did the machine and hand stitching.

As for my big piece - I have ignored it all day - and looking at it this evening - it is finished!
And ...... its OK