Sunday, December 09, 2007



I contemplated what I would do for the perspective scale thing. I really like the different mindset for the Gimme piece of work posted previously. I took a recent visitor to the Museum in Reading, near us, where there is a Victorian copy of the Bayeaux Tapestry. http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/ At sometime in the past I had thought of using early medieval (anglo-saxon etc) art style in my work, as I am not confident about drawing people. I figured the style was so archaic, any mistakes in my stuff would just blend in!!
Anyway, I never did any of that at the time. But when I saw the tapestry, I realised the archaic style was actually a different way of depicting scale and perspective! For instance, the horses are bigger than the castles and churches. Men setting a building alight are as tall as the house.
When my visitor went, I got out my books with medieval history. I sketched Lady Sew-Forth by looking at a picture of a king being crowned. He had a church in his hands...that became a sewing machine. The sceptre became a rotary cutter, the crown was decorated with needles as big as the scissors also on it. The throne became a cutting table with drawers overflowing with fabric and thread, and so on. I had a lot of fun with it.
Then I realised it was similar colours to a cheater panel someone had given me years ago, knowing I like history. They are prints from the book of hours of Richard Duc de Barry. However, having seen a modern copy of the book of hours, these fabric panels really looked bad! Sooo, what I have done is cover the main print with a thin layer of this stuff like angel paper, which knocks the colour back a bit and pushes the people you can still see on either side, into the background. Then I used other pieces from parts of the cheater panel and placed them here and there to pull the whole thing together. Then I did free motion embroidery. I think using black for the Lady, and grey for the table helped to give a better perspective, too.
I will probably do a black binding, but I actually may make this into a cushion.
Sandy in the UK

3 comments:

  1. What a great idea. I think it's a great study of tweaking scale & proportion. The cheater fabric is perfect & I love your sewing machine. I recognize the face too. Great job. Christine S.

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  2. Hi Sandy...... nice use of cheater fabric, I am never sure what to do with it. I have studied this piece for some time wanting to absorb the details and technique. A very clever piece and I like the lady and the way you moved
    her forward... front and center.
    Carole

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  3. Hi Sandy - Your piece turned out really well. I love the unexpected sizes of objects - the wee sewing machine and the giant rotary cutter create a lot of interest. Lady Sew Forth is a charming piece.

    Roberta

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