Sunrises and silhouettes

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in Colours and Textures, from our kitchen and bedroom windows we see fabulous sunrises behind the church and the beech trees for a couple of weeks leading up to Christmas and a couple of weeks afterwards, weather dependent.

The first I’ve seen this year was yesterday …

It was nothing like as dramatic as this one back in early January 2018…

…. which was marred by the scaffolding at the top of the church tower.

It must have been a good year, as another morning it was even reflecting off the wet roofs of the library and village hall.

I love the silhouettes against the sky. This one was taken on a college trip to Berlin when I was doing my degree, but I think it was probably a sunset. They all make me want to reproduce it in some way. Paint? Watercolour? Silk paint? Twisting wires? Cut paper? Stitch?

I did do a small series in acrylic paint when I was doing AS Art back in 2008, from photographs taken through the car window as we drove back from Birmingham while the sun was going down (several dozen, as the sky and light were constantly changing).

It’s a subject that has long caught my attention, and at this time of year sunrises and sunsets are probably the brighest colours we see in nature. In between doing things for Christmas, I really want to have a play somehow, more than just taking photos!

Paisley

This is the theme we have for the travelling pages for S.E.A.T.A. this month. We did a printing workshop with Jan Dowson a couple of years ago, when it was still Scunthorpe Embroiderers Guild, and I wrote about the process in Colours and textures 16 October 2020. And although I deliberated about what to do with the more or less finished main piece in Decisions, decisions 23 October 2020, I still haven’t done anything with it.

I knew that I had a test piece of four paisley shapes, printed with acrylic paint, on some gold-coloured sheeting that is about the right size for a travelling page. I used the big piece to give me ideas for stitches. The perlé and cotton thread colours that I used echoed the printed colours.

I backed it with a piece of calico, and used my go-to stitch of reverse chain stitch to outline the first “whale”, and French knots to fill the shape.

The next one was outlined in Coral stitch wanderingthreadsembroidery (also known as Snail trail stitch or German stitch), a knotted line stitch, then filled in with individual fly stitches

This one is stem stitch round the edge and lazy daisy stitches to fill in.

The final one was button hole stitch and stab stitches to fill in .

I’ve started stab stitching around the shapes, but not finished it yet. It looks as if it will be a last minute finish this month! The piece of mount board is cut ready to lace it round.

I still need to do my inspiration page too.