Spires
5.25 x 3.125 inches, hand embroidery on hand-painted silk. A scene from Horseshoe Bay, BC.
To begin I poured on a wash of pale blue silk paint. Then to capture the sun breaking through I added a few drops of Pebeo Setasilk Lightening Medium while the background was still damp enough to be blended. As I remember, I did this on three different places on the same piece of stretched silk and only one of them looked right. This determined which piece of sky ended up being included in my picture.
I used thread to mark the edges of the picture and the position of the main tree spire while I painted. The blueness of the background is washed out by the poor lighting of these earlier in-progress photos but you get the idea. I painted the misty trees by hand with my trusty tiny brush.
I also underpainted the foreground of the picture. Even though I embroider over it, some background always shows through and the underpainting also guides me as to where different trees go in the foreground. When I finished painting I sealed it with an iron.
Starting to stitch. It often looks horrific at first and you have to have faith. I unpicked some of my edge marker threads as they’re not needed anymore.
Much further on now. For the rocks I hand painted some silk in shades of grey, then cut the silk into tiny slivers and both glued and stitched them on.
I used a wide range of threads in this picture including some very floss-like ones that gave the mossy texture you see on the lower left. Those are couched into place with just a few tiny stitches to keep the thread looking as lush and springy as possible. I stitched the foreground trees extra thick so that they feel closer. With the most distant trees, I had to be careful to keep the threads that go behind the silk hidden behind my own stitches, so that they don’t mess up the pale background. You have to step backwards in your own footprints, stitching-wise, to cause as little disturbance as possible.
I’ve wanted to capture this type of composition for a long time, with trees rising out of mist, that’s so typical of BC. In some lights it looks realistic; in others, like a fairy might fly into view at any moment. Choose your own adventure.