March 21, 2014

asphalt

Feels like I've been stitching asphalt forever...but I'm done now!! I think it was about two years ago  that I declared this piece finished. And then it hung on the studio wall waiting for a sleeve until it began to taunt me. It screamed at me. It wasn't finished it said. Do something! So I did. I took apart the finished edges and decided it needed its asphalt stitched. With thick metallic thread. That took a while, but that was exactly what it needed. And then it said it wanted to be wrapped around stretched canvas. So I did that too. And now it's really finished.

Presenting City Love Affair 3.
First a few details...
vintage lace curtain dipped in light gray blue dye, layered over vintage linen
machine stitched with dark blue thread and hand stitched with yellow silk
bits of paper deliberately left behind
walking on wet asphalt towards the light at the end of a tunnel
And now for the whole...
City Love Affair 3 ©Natalya Aikens
Do you understand the need for asphalt stitching? Makes sense to me...

3 comments:

Carol Sloan said...

This is spectacular Natalya! I just love the sketchy lines that you stitched into/onto the piece. Beautiful!

Kristin L said...

Definitely. The asphalt leads you in with the figure

deborah lyn said...

Wonderful piece, love your design! Asphalt stitching?-absolutely! Well done, congrats! deborah