I have decided to embark on a new adventure in lacemaking! This will actually represent two departures for me, since I don't work in color (I do mostly altar linen and traditional patterns) and I've never tried to design my own pattern beyond the simplest.
A friend of mine in the US sent me the catalog from an exhibition of Australian Aboriginal women's paintings called "The Painted Song". Many of these paintings have a very "textile feel" to them and some of them depict the witiji (hair strings) that are given by men to women to mark significant life events. So, from fiber to two dimensions, back to fiber. I want to take a detail from a painting by Pansy Napangardi, which can be seen online at <http://tinyurl.com/6j8pcnj>. The part I want to interpret in lace is the central feature. The sinuous line in the filling is just crying out to be made in punto mimosa and the dried berry clusters in the carrying baskets (the oval shapes at six and two o'clock) can be done the way flowers are made in Cantu lace. The U shapes (representing the two traveling women) and their digging sticks (the adjacent straight lines) I see as little round tallies between plaits. I still have no idea about the filling through which the mimosa will snake. I'm thinking about something using two or three colors in the passives, and maybe a very loose and airy cloth stitch. Or maybe I'll do some sort of complicated weaving of plaits. Since this is just for my own pleasure and the joy of challenge I don't think there are any copyright issues, are there? Does anyone have any comments, suggestions, caveats? Thanks! Sr. Claire - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com
