Starling in Hawthorne

Happy new year!


First finish of 2018, first blog post in many moons, who knows, it could be the start of something new!


I started this in 2017 - maybe even the beginning of 2017, I'm not sure - stitching birch bark on fabric and then putting one of my painted fabric birds on it, and then I lost it.

No, not metaphorically, I  mean sometime around March, I actually lost it. I'd done a studio clean up, and when I came back a few days later, I couldn't find it.

I looked of course, but I remembered it being on a hoop and having been put away that way, and how many places can a big ass hoop be (16 inches across) without you coming across it pretty quickly?  We'd had a series of people in the house around that time, some we knew well, some who were strangers to us - and I thought maybe someone had stolen it. (Someone *did* steal another piece of art during the period, right off the wall!)

After a couple of concerted searches, I figured it was gone, and didn't think much more of it.

Fast forward to November, and lo and behold, I found it! Off the hoop, folded up, and put in a basket, which was the bottom basket of a stack of baskets that had been sitting on a shelf the whole time.

So, I started working on it again - there wasn't much left to do.

I hand stitched it to the hoop, painstakingly wrapped purchased ribbon around the hoop and then thin copper wire over that, enclosed the back with a piece of an antique hand-embroidered white tablecloth, signed it, dated it, flipped it over to admire it, and realized I had somehow gotten some kind of reddish stain on the front. I assume it was lipstick that had gotten on my hand somehow. I tried washing it out, but I ended up with a much larger, pinkish stain that I couldn't budge.

SIGH

Okay, no problem, I decided to paint the white background white. But it took SO. MANY. LAYERS of acrylic paint to cover the pink stain that by the time it was dry, it looked really bizarre. Thick layers of paint right up to the edges of the bark and embroidery.

Nothing for it but to cut it out of the hoop, cut off the artfully arranged needle felted branches (sacrificing some of the hand-painted berries and embroidery); and re mount it, re embroider, and re needle felt some branches. Butttt, I didn't feel like doing that right away.

In December, I decided I'd like to produce something I could post (I've been working on secret projects behind the scenes); so I pulled it out again, re-worked all that needed to be re-worked, re mounted it on a hoop, wrapped the hoop with hand cut ribbon, and then with metallic copper thread,  sewed another piece of antique, embroidered white tablecloth to the back, hand beaded the edge because I thought it needed a little something else and, TA-DA! It was done.



I put some fray-check on the ribbon and left it to dry overnight.

And when I looked at it the next day, I FOUND ANOTHER STAIN.

This time it was the fray check, and nothing I did could budge the stain.




By this time, I wanted to throw the thing out the window.

I brought it to BSP to both show and complain, and BSP said "Uhhhhh...I don't like the "round" thing."

Uhm. WAT?

"Well, it makes it look like, you know, don't get mad at me, but it looks like craft, not ART. It's not classy. Your work is intensive, painstaking, a ton of work. Don't you want it to look that way?"

But this is COOL. 

"Mmmmm...not really. This needs to be in a frame, with a mat, under glass. Especially at the prices you charge."

Well... you may have a point. 

So, I pulled it off the frame, thinking I could maybe save it and not have to redo the branches and berries and embroidery a THIRD time, but...taking into account the round shape, the stains (yes, once I took it off the hoop I discovered that there were a lot more stains)



And, I had to re-embroider, re-needlefelt branches, re-paint fabric and cut out little berries, for a THIRD time.

Then I remounted, this time on a rectangle.

It's not actually framed yet - this is my "artist rendering" of how I want to have it framed, so it's currently mounted on hardboard, 15.5 x 12.5" and is for sale. 




If you'd like to buy it, please contact me at artbykitlang@gmail.com

First 2018 finish! Yay!lol

Kit


Kit Lang

7 comments:

  1. Trials and tribulations! But what a wonder when done :) The piece is very very refreshing.

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  2. Wow! I have to say I admire your persistence, and commend you for completing this piece. A stunning piece it is too. Actually the story behind it is equally as interesting. That is the part of the project that no one thinks about. But often there are stories with the project, that if known, would add more value to owning art. I so enjoyed your story about this art piece. The recovery of it is stunning and amazing!

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  3. Oh Kit! Your patience! I'd have given up on it long ago on the basis that, for whatever reason, the Gods did not want to see that one ever finished! And it's also refreshing to knew that other people lose stuff in their studio. Though I cannot say I lose things because I tidy - that would be a fib. Instead stuff just gets put aside and then more stuff gets piled on top and things just get lost in the whole stratification! But this morning I am going to have a bit of a tidy! I wonder what I might find! Happy new year to you. Hilary ps I cannot believe that someone stole something off your wall. That beggars belief!!!

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  4. My goodness! The end result, however, is well worth all that effort. It is absolutely lovely!!

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  5. This is great! I've been waiting to see how it turned out since you mentioned it on instagram. You're so right that the rectangular frame is better than the circular hoop; what a lovely piece it turned out to be!

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  6. The times that try women's souls! What an incredible journey and you are to be commended for going back to it time and again to try to make it work. Getting rid of the hoop presentation definitely elevates this piece. I'm particularly intrigued with your use of actual birch bark. I experimented with small pieces a bit years ago but was never brave enough to try stitching through it, although several artists assured me it was no big deal. And you too seem to be saying that. For Pete's sake, stitching the bark to the cloth was the LEAST of your problems here. ;-) Beautiful piece.

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