New perspectives

 I have been thinking about my three hanging works of old gauze bandages and letraset. Like their book-based counterparts (still underway) they are about validating our feelings around this time - from the ongoing pandemic, through lockdowns, to opening up again, through terrible natural disasters, to dealing with the soaring cost of living, to worrying about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to fearing the worst with Roe v Wade in the US and all the rest of it.

Barry helped me drill holes in the vertical part of the hanging lid and I then sat down to sew them. How hard could it be?

Sitting at the table it was very hard! Using misbehaving thread, trying to work out how long the stitch needed to be so that they would hang evenly, trying to even make a stitch that would hold on the open weave gauze, trying to get my unwieldy needles and fingers to get behind the slightly angled lid bit and so on.

More and more often, I find that if I am awake at night and return to sleep isn't coming easily, I start to work my through my creative dilemmas; the things that are blocking my progression and so on. This either leads me back into sleep; or resolves a problem, so I shall keep using it as a technique for a while yet I think. 

So, luckily, the other night I thought of a way to make it easier to sew: sew from underneath the lid as if I was in the box!

What follows is a photographic story of what it looked like.

Before I began, this piece sitting on a book cover which harmonises so well.

Underway - with tape on the back to temporarily stabilise.

My ingenious solution - blu tac the lid to underneath my desk so I could have easier access to the holes, the needle and thread moved better, and the height and position of the piece was easier to work out.

The view from where I worked.

Looking down.

So much easier to deal with the fly away thread.

I experimented with cotton, fine nylon thread - double thickness and single thickness.

I loved looking at my work differently and seeing it from a new angle.

I stitched and unpicked several times trying to get the height right and the levels within the boxes pleasing; as well as determine what looked best thread wise. 

A few more steps and then I think I am there!