but that's not surprising as it's a gray day, which almost always makes for challenging photography. And really, that's not the point because this piece is intended to be felt as much as seen.
It began with this image of the labyrinth at Adobe and Pines in Taos ...
It began with this image of the labyrinth at Adobe and Pines in Taos ...
which I never actually walked. Regretting, that lapse, I thought making a stitched version would be a good thing. Then I could "walk" the labyrinth over and over.
But as you can see, the photo was taken at an angle, so when I pricked the path with a needle (behind which you can see a much truer picture of the madder cloth) ...
I realized the stitches would be too close together at the back of the path. So I tried drawing a crow's eye view of the path freehand ...
Good enough. I drew it again on cloth, letting my water erasable marker "walk" the path.
And then "walked" it yet again in tiny backstitches, worked in #8 perle cotton. But when I washed out the marker, a shadow remained ...
And then "walked" it yet again in tiny backstitches, worked in #8 perle cotton. But when I washed out the marker, a shadow remained ...
It was the logwood linen backing discharging into the madder ...
particularly along the seam...
and I'm absolutely okay with that. In fact, I may continue to wet and dry the piece in hopes of encouraging more discharge, after first detaching it from the Metta stitching ...
And here I pause to give belated thanks to Connie Akers, my down-the-street neighbor with whom I recently reconnected. It was Connie who gifted me with the madder and logwood dyed pieces of linen. She is one of a trio of natural dyers who work under the name Eco & Indigo Fiber Arts ...
They are currently working some wonderful magic and videotaping their results, which you can see for yourself if you have Facebook
P.S. Trial copies of Moon Myth are headed my way from Shutterfly and Blurb ... fingers crossed that one or both are worthy.
love your labyrinth & look forward to seeing your book published!
ReplyDeleteHi LA - beautiful thinking behind the work - love the colour and execution. B
ReplyDeleteHaptic is the exact right word; I kept thinking of walking the labyrinth with my fingers. I just wanted to run them along between the lines of stitching, meditatively taking the time to trace and retrace the path. What a lovely reminder of your visit; and a wonderful way to recreate a walk you didn't take...
ReplyDeleteLove your meditative labyrinth. I feel we are exploring a similar theme and lovely to know you are treading/stitching your path and I mine.
ReplyDeleteMo - thanks and fingers crossed for sure
ReplyDeleteBarry and Fiona - next up will be a more literal version, with stitches standing in for rocks along a smooth path
Louise - I've been thinking about doing this for several months ... your recent posts got me motivated to see it through
Love this Liz! What a perfect companion to your metta cloth :) I myself have a thing for labyrinths. There is one at the place we stay in Morro Bay, but it was too muddy when we were there last month. I walked one once that was at a church, where we were celebrating a marriage. I bought this book to learn more:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Labyrinths-Spirit-Create-Meditation-Enlightenment/dp/1856752615/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544120763&sr=1-1&keywords=labyrinth+for+the+spirits++jim+buchanan
If I had big land, I'd make my own!
And, oh yes...can't wait to see how the books look in the real!
ReplyDeleteI got so caught up in the labyrinth thoughts! Like I said, I feel drawn to them. When I was a child, my uncle had one of those wooden labyrinth boxes, where you have to tilt and tip in different directions to make the silver ball walk it :) I loved that thing.
Nancy - oh yes, I well remember the wooden labyrinth box ... one of many "puzzling" family Christmas gifts my folks got us over the years.
ReplyDeleteAs for the books ... the Shutterfly came in and as I feared, the cropping was pretty brutal (I became Liz "Acker" on the cover). But the scanned images were very serviceable so I have high hopes for the Blurb copy (if it ever makes it out of the UPS shipping hub in Georgia).
Would love to feel this path with my fingers, just imagining it brings relaxed breathing.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Just recently, I saved some labyrinth designs found on the Internet for stitching. This all came about as I follow another blog https://godspacelight.com/2017/04/04/labyrinth-walking-for-all-of-us/
ReplyDeleteAs always, you remain a true inspiration to me. Blessings to you and Don.
Hazel - it is, in reality, calming ... exactly what I need these days
ReplyDeleteSue - thanks for the link ... there's nothing new under the sun, but we can each find our own way to go