They have arrived...

After many months, and a bit of agonizing, I finally made something happen with this background that I had felted last summer. I was in a bind, as my initial idea seemed too intimidating, and I needed to come up with a new concept which would fit the dimensions of this background. I was in a state of hesitation for a while, a bit scared to move forward, especially after what felt like quite a long hiatus.

But then something which at first seemed negative, turned into a positive aid. In March, my Etsy shop was suspended, along with all shops in Russia. I was bummed, to say the least. For the last several months, I had been engrossed in making products and planning new ones. I always had something to keep my hands busy, so it was one more excuse for not focusing on fine art. As soon as that was put on the back burner, and my hands were threatened with idleness (!!!), I got down to business and began work on this piece.

Blending wool is one of my favorite aspects of the work. I love the layers of color which simultaneously add such motion to the design.

Once the wool is laid down and secured, it's time for it to be stitched down with silk thread. This part is tricky in the sense that there will always be a trace of the stitch, a texture, so I have to decide what impression I want the stitches to make - flowing, static, linear. For this piece I chose a combination of groups of flowing stitches, separated by groups of x's to stop the movement of the eye.

After forming the shapes of all of my human figures, it was time to start arranging them, followed by stitching in place.

The shadows at the end gave me a lot to pause, think about, redo. It was a bit of unexpected trickiness, to be honest. But anyway, it's done!

It's fun to see an idea come to fruition, from this....to this....

If you enjoy this piece or other work of mine, feel free to share on social media! I am unable to use Facebook and Instagram at this time, so I would really appreciate any help on spreading the work

Thanks!