New work: Finesse: Bound to the Past

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper 

This is yet another completely finished new piece – I know -  I’ve been very productive recently after a fallow period. 

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper (detail)

Although the colours are completely different, the work is still related to the Unsung Muses series.  I’ve used a different goddess shape and repeated it across the background using print and embroidery.  There are waves of stitch passing over the background.  The crosses and circles come from the patterns on some of these ancient figures.

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper (detail)

You may recognise that the crosses are made from the fabric beads I got a bit obsessed with making in February.  It is good to use them, although the quilt is now rather more delicate than it was before.

The beads used, bought from the African Fabric Shop

I love the circle beads I used.  They came from the African Fabric Shop (always a favourite) and are made from recycled glass.  You can see more of them here in lots of different colourways.  In fact, I’m really tempted to add to my collection again.

I’ve hand stitched circles around the glass beads, which again is a bit of a departure from the work I have been doing over the last few years, but takes me back right to where I started with fabric.  However, with hindsight, I think I did mainly hand stitch then as I was afraid of my sewing machine.  How things move on!

Has your work had any major changes recently?

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper (detail)

 All of these photos apart from the glass bead ones were taken by Alan McCredie.  The piece measures 25x19in.