Persephone's Path 2

In a true act of Kaizen I have re-begun stitching on the second of the Persephone panels.

The piece I was working on last summer was one of the central parts of the story. This one represents the Kore, the very beginning of the story...

Persephone has multiple identities (as befits a goddess) the Kore is one of the names for her as a maiden.

but more about that another time.

I'm using one of the most blasted out pieces of discharge shiboi for this panel. I've basted it to a golden green ground (springtime/rebirth). A combo of running stitches and pintucks are being used to make a scattered diamond motif that gives it a little dimension and plays off of the very faint pattern the shibori left behind...

I'm trying to let the fabric/concept lead me down the path.

Too Windy

Today I had planned to set up outside and catch up on my photography. I have been trying to get the ETSY store filled with all the products that are just sitting around for lack of decent photos. It was bright and sunny and warm out. I had even managed to get all the other pressing tasks for the weekend finished yesterday. It was also quite breezy. Once I got set up I realized that this was not the day to try this as it was definitely going to be an exercise in frustration. I did get one shot of the sashes I dyed last week though.

Instead I opted to try some discharge shibori that I've been wanting to do. Shibori girl Glennis has posted a wonderful picture from a recent museum visit that served as the inspiration for this bit of trial and error. I love the zigzag of the motif in the original and I wanted to try to do the same thing however I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep the motifs consistently spaced so I decided to use wooden beads bound into the fabric at intervals to keep some consistency.

I started with a long panel of dark brown linen (I think) fabric and bound in the beads. Next I plunked it into a bleach solution.

My first attempt got a bit too blasted out.

the second one came out better, I increased the wraps on the resist and reduced the amount of bleach as well as the length of time in the solution. I like the result although it looks very little like the inspiration at all... its also very difficult to see the pattern as it is being bound so the motif is sort of broken up a bit!