guitar string ribs for Sea Urchin 3

Sea Urchin 3 is starting to take shape
lining each panel in white silk edged in needle lace then stitching old bottom E strings from Old Man Crow’s Gibson Les Paul into the edges to give it form
starting to take shape
the old guitar strings make my heart sing
hoping to get to the halfway point by dawn
Braille for the Soul

getting there stitch by stitch (Sea Urchin 3 in process)

Sea Urchin 3 in process stitch by stitch
panel 6 detail
panel 7 detail
panel 8 detail
two panels to go then each one will be lined in white silk, edged in buttonhole lace with guitar strings for the ribs
Braille for the Soul

Sea Urchin 3 progress in the transliteration of Braille for the Soul

Sea Urchin 3 Mo17
progress in the transliteration of Braille for the Soul
detail of the 5th panel at the halfway point
the beginnings of panel 6 exploring the pattern inside
detail of the beautiful perforations inside the sea urchin

Sea Urchin 3 numbly stitching through the angst for our beautiful broken world

Sea Urchin 3 in process Mo 17
the 4th panel took two weeks of numbly stitching through the angst for our beautiful broken world
with wobbling attention to the surface details
sea urchin surface detail
this one will take quite some time but there is no rush
Braille for the Soul

making sense stitch by stitch

making sense of Sea Urchin III stitch by stitch

each panel informs the next, held the urchin under the magnifying lens

and realized each of the bumps look like a tiny breast replete with nipple & areole!

felt is so easy to stitch & manipulate, this is fun!
stitching is like Braille for the Soul

Sea Urchin III in process

a friend accidentally washed her Mum’s favourite wool cardigan & gave it to me for Sea Urchin III

the template has a diameter of 29cm, even remembered the formula for finding the circumference of a circle to divide it evenly into 10 panels

each panel was cut with a scalpel blade and steel rule

the first panel was stitched with DMC cotton perle with lots of French knots and couched threads for texture, then made a blind drawing whilst looking at the details of the sea urchin under the jeweller’s lens
NB blind drawing is a favourite exercise for getting the hand/eye coordination flowing by following the edges of the surface of the object with the eye and the tip of the pencil without looking at the paper


also tried one strand of blind stitching inspired by Leonie Andrews’s Stitching in the Dark but there was too much blood letting involved, Old Man Crow suggested wearing Teflon gloves!

a sad Sea Urchin II

Sea Urchin II Mo 17
6cmW x 3.5cmH
needlelace over Whisper silk organza & boar bristles, French knots & glass beads
sadly overworked to a lumpy travesty of the form

it lost the delicate laciness and all those wispy edges

by trying too hard & hoping that if I just kept going it would work out in the end… it doesn’t …

the good news is I was given this felted wool cardigan that a friend accidentally put in the washing machine

it will be perfect for  Sea Urchin III
Braille for the Soul is the working title for my new body of work investigating what we read through the haptic sense of touch in stitch
the misbegotten one looks happy sitting on the shelf with the Barrel of Fun

Sea Urchin II still in process

Sea Urchin II is still in process but I am getting better at making French Knots !

needle lace stitched over Whisper silk organza & boar bristles, vintage glass beads, French knots & thread beads

the top resting over the base, will weave them together once all the French knots are done

This wonderful bundle of naturally dyed vintage cloths and threads arrived from Ulrike all the way from Germany!

Frangipani flowers from one of our gardens

Sea Urchin 2 in process

Sea Urchin 2 in process, needle lace over boar bristles, vintage glass beads

random needle lace over “whisper” silk organza and boar bristles
considering how to place the beads…

observing the details

considering string and things

considering string and things