Gentle Spiders,
I'll leave the setting up of the separate work-list for Arachne-7 Project to those who are 'puter literate; y'all decide whether the yahoo route is a good one or not, set something up (if not; Jo's already set up a yahoo one, if it turns out to be *the* choice) and tell us when it's open, and how to join it (and let's hope I can manage <g>)
In the meantime, I've been keeping track of various ideas and the degree of enthusiasm they seem to generate. Also, thinking how best to "marry" as many of them as possible *and* stay within the size limits that Jacquie has given us (190cm total for Length+ Width+ Depth *packing* size. Say, 180cm, at most, for the *project*).
OK. The man leaving St Ives with all the "bagage" (wives, sacks, kittens, what have you) seems to be a clear winner since it offers the most versatility (lots of bits and pieces to be made, not *all* the elements *have to be* pictured, more difficult portions can be made by more accomplished lacemakers, etc).
Jo has "married" that idea with the 7-continents one: each wife would come from a different one (with appropriate costume), Clay suggested panels (has to be seven, naturally <g>)... Keeping those and other ingredients (binary sevens, for example, and the veils in sin colours) in mind, I tumbled them around a bit, and wonder if this would "fly":
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1) Size and Shape
Seven panels, each 70cm square, each in a 3.5cm deep frame.
With the lace in the middle (attached to a piece of fabric, with a piece of cardboard in the middle to give the panel some stability before it's framed), it ought to leave about 1cm off-set, to protect the lace in one panel from touching the lace in the next one. For packing purposes, if we stack them, we have: 3.5x7=24.5 cm (say 25). 25 + 140 = 165. Should leave plenty of room for packing materials. And each panel/panel half could be assembled regionally, and sent to whoever offers to frame them and forward to the Lace Guild as a single entry.
Alternatively (and, possibly, a better idea), we could have *8* panels; 7 with lace, and one with explanations of the many transcontinental sevens :) The sizes of the panels would need to be changed then, to allow for the 8th frame.
2) Images.
Each panel could have, centered, a (rough) outline of a continent. Made twice (once for each side of the panel). I'd suggest that the division lines (between North and South America, between Europe and Asia) be made in half-stitch (since they're not "real" and rather "fuzzy" <g>), while the rest could be made either in solid tape or the patterned, "binary 7" braid, if we come up with a nice design for it. Each continent could be outlined in a different "sin colour" (no, I'm not going into *that* minefield <g>)
The wives would be centered on each continent, filling most of it (it they're going to be in costume, they need lots of room to show detail). Given that that'd make 14 wives total, we could, perhaps, have two different ones for each continent ("la donna e mobile", etc <g>)
In a corner of each panel, outside the continent's outline, we could have a *small* figure of a man; same size and same shape for all 14, to provide a "constans", since it's the same man in all the pictures. He, too, could be in a "sin colour". Unfortunately, his being small wouldn't allow him to hold a fly-swatter with seven spots on it... :(
Cats, sacks and veils (of the dance) and/or fragments thereof could be fitted in the remaining space within each panel, *outside* the continents' outlines (perhaps a cat's paw could be reaching into the continent <g>), complementing the man's image. If we wanted to go ahead and include the "beyond seven mountains, forests, rivers" and the "seven sisters" (roses) ideas, the rivers (the main river of each continent?) could be placed behind the wives, with a tree or a leaf (for the forest), an outline of a mountain, and a rose in the remaining space *within* the continent, with the wife. A partial spiderweb could also be fitted in, either outside or inside each continent...
Antarctica... Perhaps, the wife there could be all white (an opaque mystery <g>), just an "overal female shape" without a particular costume.... Perhaps *she* could hold the flyswatter with 7 spots on it. Or *be* the flyswatter :) The only colour there would be the outline of the continent, and that of the man...
3) Assembly/Display
I imagine each (double) panel framed separately, but with a couple of eye-hooks screwed in, at different heights, along one upright. Then, a central rod, fitting into a solid (*very*, I'm afraid, in order to keep the whole upright) base, could be "threaded" through all of the "eyes" to hold the panels together as "pages" swivelling on it. The *exhibit* would take a whole lot more space than permitted, but, with the *packing size* requirements met, we might get away with it :)
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I think something along those lines would offer plenty of participation opportunities to everyone, irrespective of different skill and interest levels/areas. Lynn (Wildgunsmate of Tennessee) offered to draw for us (and there might be others), but she'll need some images and parameters to play around with, before she can draw the cartoons for the general approval. Also, she's not an experienced lacemaker herself, so she couldn't *design* (ie translate into lace terns) the different bits and pieces.
Some people, I'm sure, would prefer to design their own (while keeping to the general guidelines of the drawing: sizes, colour scheme, etc), in the technique they're most comfortable with (BL *not* being the only lace <g>). Some, OTOH, might like to chose a bit to make, and have someone else provide a detailed diagram/instructions for it... There might be some "middle-of-the-road" people, who'd like *some* help, but would not like being told step-by-step what to do (an extra possibility, in addition to self-designed, of avoiding the problem of matching threads accross the globe)... There'd be room for all.
Yours, mentally spent at 01:30 (1:30 AM) local time, --- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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