my Digital to Textile posting

One of my favorite childhood books was "Cheaper by the Dozen," a tale of a dozen-child family headed by parents who were both time-and-motion-study experts. Their goal was that the brood waste no motion, no moment, no opportunity in the search for economy of movement and maximum proficiency. (Editorial note:  the 1950 movie based on the book is hilarious and true to the text; the 2003 version is neither.)

So, having revealed this sweet remembrance, one should surmise that efficiency reigns high in my list of mantras.

This piece flew in the face of that mantra. I started the threadwork on the far left vessel, and soon found that staccato bursts seemed suited to the shape --

Connecting these thread-bursts would have been the logical thing to do -- no need to bury the threads, a much faster execution time. However, I wanted to use many colors and types of thread -- variegated, cotton, matte, polyester, all in varying hues.  If I stitched one type of thread where I thought it should go, before stitching down the areas in between, I risked ending up with a piece that would defy flattening and would wave like Old Glory in a hurricane.

So I threw my effiency mantra out the window.

As I progressed to the image of the bottle, a different style of stitch emerged, tailored to all those wonderful curvy crannies and color gradations caused by the translucency of the green bottle and the red-rust vessels lurking behind it.

 

Though this piece took me an inordinate amount of time, I feel it was worth the investment -- not because I think it is a fantastic work, but because I learned oodles as I made decisions on stitch design, color, texture, and line.  I  was so stimulated by the process that I found myself wanting to arise at ungodly hours just to be able to sit with it, stitch,  and fully engage the right side of my brain.

I named this piece "Textured Vessels." I was so eager and distracted that I put the backing piece on upside down.  Oh, well, efficiency maybe is not always commensurate with art-endeavors.