distractions ...

... large ones.

First there was the purple kale that was on its way out and turning these amazing colors and then wasn't it a lot of fun to mess with the image a bit .....

Then yesterday was a whole new level of distraction.  I woke up thinking about self-portrait Friday and had been thinking about a different approach.  Where I've been, where I am now - but in fabric.  I knew the old me was definitely muslin - unadorned but full of potential, not too strong, but with some very nice qualities.  I was originally thinking of silk for the new me and then I remembered the amazing piece of linen I bought in Provence.  Perfect natural color, incredibly strong, also unadorned and absolutely okay with it.  So it began ...

I decided to stitch the two panels together with red silk - the spine, the blood and the support.  

  It was very satisfying, sitting on the floor, hand-stitching and thinking about what to do next ...

The finished 'spine' ...

Next, I decided to embellish the backbone with a row of raw diamonds that I had been hoarding and a treasured gift, some Herkimer diamond beads- thank you thank you Cynthia!.

The base of the neck is another treasured gift - one of Lynne's classic lampwork bones. 

I got to a stopping place and didn't know where to go next.  The piece is hanging on my workroom door and I had thought to show the current stage and then decided no.  There's definitely more to do, but it needs to rest and, for now, I must leave it be.

Today, I was back to working on orders, but got distracted  yet again by a small pile of river pebbles on my worktable which lead to these ......

Not sure where these will end up, but love the look.  I do have a bit of a plan for the self-portrait piece which involves photo collage and images of me then and now and maybe some layers and beeswax and .......... guess I'll just see where I'm inspired to go next.

further along and continuing onward.

blessings - kvk