Today I swam 1350 m. I am obviously getting stronger.
I was thinking about my review which is coming up in about 2 weeks. I should call it "I haven't finished thinking yet!" because it is only at this stage, after a year's development, that I am starting to feel I know what my theme is and am starting to draw conclusions about what I want to work on.
I thought about feedback received from Vanda yesterday. I showed her my yokes, which I am starting to embroider. One end of the yoke has a drawing of a kitchen tool, and the other has an embroidered number that is significant to how the tool was used, for example, 140,000 lbs on the yoke with a potato peeler, which is the number of pounds of potatoes peeled by my mother during 42 years of marriage! Vanda liked the work, but stated they needed to be 2.5 x longer. Ratfink! So I need to carefully seam in extra fabric, and even worse, either unpick the embroidery or cut it off. I suspect I will need to cut it off as the markings will show. Having received the feedback, she's right. It will dramatically improve the impact of the work, especially if the yokes reach the floor, thereby demonstrating the burden of women's work.
However I also received feedback on my marmalade piece. This is a large piece of muslin printed with marmalade jars, with embroidery that breaks down how much time it takes to make a batch of marmalade. It will be titled "I wouldn't give you a 'thank you' for it", which is a comment that illustrates how ungrateful recipients are, for time consuming, and highly superior, items made by women. On the one hand, the feedback was totally fair and accurate, and on the other, I'm not going to apply it.
Vanda said the stitching was clunky and too heavy; should be done in cross stitch (not back stitch) to represent traditional women's work; should be in very fine coloured single thread (not variegated double stranded thread) and on a white piece of muslin applied as a jam label (not direct onto the jar). And "are you going to include this in the exhibition at Parndon Mill on Friday?"
There is a lot of stitching - too much to take out, and too likely to damage the muslin in doing it. I loathe cross stitch and even if it represents traditional women's work, I still hate it and it makes me cringe. Also, for me, cross stitch represents middle age, middle class women, stitching decorative items because they are bored. Back stitch is a functional stitch used for mending seams - much more a stitch of the practical working class used from necessity. I identify with this. If I tried to work cross stitch to write all the script that I feel necessary, I could not do it in the space available, to the accuracy required, and on the material (muslin) that suits the message. Also, it is the message of the words that is important, not the technique of cross stitch. Cross stitch would make it much more difficult to read.
I'm not going to unpick the stitching. I've ripped out miles of knitting in my time, because you can reknit the thread and it does not spoil the finished item, but unpicking stitching (particularly on muslin) won't rework to a suitable standard. I will finish the script in back stitch, in order to fully work up the concept to my satisfaction, and consider it a fully functioning learning piece. It is not a resolved product with a high technical finish. I am an artist, not a technician. I need to get the concept and message right first. Technique comes afterwards.
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