Page 82 - The Digital Cloth - Issue 5

So once again rummaging
through my mountain of scraps
I manage to find the right
ones for his gorgeous face and
hold them down with a bit of
glue. Confident I’ve done them
all is time to layer him with
a stabilizer (heavy
tearaway) hoop him up and
start thread sketching or
painting. Armed with 40 & 50
weight Aurifil threads, making
sure I have at least 1 or more
of the following: Dark (nearly
black) Medium and Lights (not
Well this is a little piece white unless you have to).
done as a fundraiser raising
money for Fred Hollows These will give me the
finer detail I’m after as well
Foundation and part of a one
off exhibition called Eyes of as anchoring down the fabrics.
Wonder/Wonder of Eyes Now I’ve learned from a
run/curated by Brenda Gael
Smith, which was going to be couple of great artists you
start with the eyes. Why?
held at AQC earlier in 2020.
As we all know the whole world Because if you stuff them up
changed in February as the you haven’t wasted your time
doing the rest first! I now
Pandemic made its presence felt
across the world sadly. Anyhow do the eyes first. I nev-
er used and I seemed to warm
this will hopefully be able to
exhibit in April 2021 when AQC to my piece first then tackle
I hope can be on once again. the eyes….but doing them first
makes sense. I also try to do
them both at once so they look
Now back to Not So Innocent he like they belong on the same
is a cropped artwork from my
image of my photos I took in face.
Botswana 2019. He’s a teenager Once I’m happy with the amount
and his Maine is still just
extra bit of fluff. Life is of thread sketching I unhoop,
just tear of remaining
tough in this part of
Botswana and there’s a drought stabilizer add the wadding and
on, I noticed a couple of scars backing then quilt. I try to
quilt more densely in the
already on his body and face.
I’m guessing from the learning areas next to the bits I want
to puff up or pop up more.
to hunt and so on but you can’t
help and wonder what he’s seen
already. For the edge I normally do a
facing. However with these and
upcoming animals I’m
Now the size of this piece is doing, I’m just doing a
20 x 20cm (to tie in with 20/20
Vision) so to capture but do scribble dense stitch. So much
both his eyes I needed to crop easier for me but it suits the
work more as well.
this image quite a bit from the
original photo. I printed it
and this traced it onto a plain
fabric base then I could start
the collage.