Layering, layering…

This little gal began as a piece of left over cotton with a barely visible white print–I’d intended it for floral embroidery, but the white bothered me, so I tossed it in the “later” drawer. A few days ago, I laid it on the think table & dotted on some watercolors.  Then came the green leaf stamps.  It needed SOMEthing, but I didn’t know what, so I left it.  As I waited for the paint to dry (which I’m learning is a VERY important time for letting ideas percolate and reveal themselves), I cleaned out a folder of collage papers and BLAM–found the headless body.  It wanted to be on the colored fabric, so I glued it down.  I like the way it looks, so we’ll see where it takes me.

Old fabric, old photocopy,

what could it be?

This crazy gel transfer was an artist trading paper intended for atc’s, but I gelled it onto a piece of unbleached muslin.  (see gel transfer how-to here *link* )  After scrubbing away the backing paper, I ran a wet tea bag over the surface to tint it a bit, and I let it dry to see the color.  Next came some red watercolors to give it a little interest–I scribbled in all the circles…

I also added a little more brown for depth and then splashed some color around.  I laid out some floss to get an idea of what kind of stitching action I wanted.  This is a great way to cheat before stitching–just use floss as a kind of rough draft of what you might want to  add.

Next is the real fun–BUGS!!!  I start with a little ladybug…

Then a blue beetle…

Then a silvery thread to imitate a spider web…

Next, I’ll lay on some more color, and maybe a caterpillar??   Stay tuned…

Here’s the web stitched down and a purple beetle added.