Fleur-de-lis

On June 29 I posted the before pics of this piece.

I can't remember when I started collecting Fleur-de-lis motifs, but right now they seem to be very popular! Wouldn't you know it?! The metal embellishments are handmade; once they were aged with black paint they told me where they wanted to go. I was blown away by the way the fibers from the left to right, lower area, followed a sweeping swirling motion, subtle, but perfect for placing embellishments. Wish I could say that I'd planned it that way, but I didn't notice that line of fibers until I put the motifs in place. Anyway, this piece was embellished for Dale's online workshop. Lesson 2 of 6. Talk about being way behind. A few students are caught up with all 6 lessons, I hate them!!

I think that my problem with this piece was that I fell in love with the gold foil on the black felt base and then the painted cheesecloth that was embellished on followed by a layer of distressed silk gauze. I've always had a hard time working with layers, but it sure makes a difference. In person the gold foil is a little more evident, nice shimmery effect in a few areas some of which can be seen in this scan on the upper edge a little right of the middle. At first I thought that this was a vertical piece but the direction changed to horizontal once I started adding yarn to it.

We're having monsoonal conditions here in the desert! Thursday night there was an exciting thunder and lightning show with even some rain! I sat on the patio under cover of the extended roof and marveled at nature! The change in weather is playing havoc on our allergies! But at least the temps have fallen from 110 + to high 90's. Yep, one can feel the difference.

I found a collection of poems by Emily Dickinson amongst mom's books that I was sorting out to donate. (She seems to read the same 3 books over and over again. I think that she's drawn to the covers. I'm not a fan of romance novels so I'm clearing out a huge portion of them.) I opened the book to the page with this poem on it.

Quote/poem: Pain has an element of blank:

It cannot recollect

When it began, or when it was not.

It has no future but itself,

Its infinite realms contain

Its past, enlightended to perceive

New periods of pain.