Illuminated!

It may seem strange to have a language inspired piece alongside a variety of 'natural environment' inspired pieces.  However, I believe language is very much a part of our 'natural environment'.  It is the tool we use to express & communicate what we see, hear, smell, taste, sense & feel. The physical representation of that language...writing... is in itself a wonderful landscape of lines, curves & dots that individuals throughout mankind's existance on this planet, have designed to mean something.

One of the great gifts of travel is to not only see the places where other people live, but also how they express themselves...their written language. The photo above is the NEW Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which I was privileged to visit in 2012.  The exterior is decorated with examples of language from all over the world. What struck me was that, not speaking any other language but English...I didnt know what most of those line & curve combinations meant, therefore I was able to appreciate them for their structure & beauty, instead of being caught up in their meaning!

It occured to me in my recording of 'short & curlies' that some of those combinations looked like they could form a written language!

So I started selecting a few of those combinations & started respecting them as potential 'words'....albeit meaningless words!!

It was time to do some more research! I started looking at Manuscripts & Illuminated Gospels, all things I find exciting and beautiful. I noted the layout, the style, where letters were bold & where they were muted.  I made notes on borders and backgrounds. Ideas started to form....

 

Returning to the sketchbook, I wondered how I was going to create a regular repeat pattern from irregular 'hair' designs! By using mirror image & repeat patterning ofcourse!  Eventually I had an arrangement of 'words', which I would surround with borders to create the effect of some form of forgotten manuscript!

Time to think about colours & fabric choices. Medieval manuscripts & Arabic texts have a richness to them that I want to bring to my work.  GOLD was a must!

By laying my designs out on the gold background, with sections coloured in, I could better see, which fabrics I wanted to go & where.

The borders were developed seperately, with a view to attaching them AFTER I had created the   script. They were completed first because it took me a LONNNNNNNNNG time to sort out  the order in which I wanted to place my words!

Then I needed to play with a few samples to see what colour & fabric combinations would work in the practicality of using contemporary reverse applique, to sew those words onto the background!

And what would work best alongside those borders?

LOTS of sewing, lots of cutting & then lots of handstitching later it all came together & here it is...

The working title throughout the development of the piece had been 'Illuminated'. However, I had a few other titles swimming around in my head, so I asked some friends for their preferences & they agreed to 'Manuscript of Hair & Now' as being the right title for this piece!!


*Please respect my ownership of the images & text above & do not copy without permission. Thank you