Wth the silk & bandages ready for use, thoughts moved to another set of words - positive ones - many often used to remedy situations or relationships & opposites to the first set. Recollecting the earlier ’ heart’ images (from 2012 & also that when finding the red silk), the word LOVE sprung to mind & looking then over at the panel finally stitched, happened to notice that the red silk strips had began to raise slightly & resemble “thickened veins”. On seeing this & next looking over towards the bandages, thoughts occurred of “being inside the heart” & actually witnessing physical effects of anger taking place … cuts & jabs sinking into each vein & as a bandage was being applied to the wound, watching the mark leave a visible ‘scar’ … so … QUESTION … could I somehow try to create this effect & if so, how? … & should there be another set of words?
LOVE was an opposite word to HATE which I’d already stitched … the heart images reminded me of those earlier from "Love Lies Bleeding” & reflecting on all sketches so far, those relating to tattoos become important once again & I decided there would be another set of words - this time positive ones. Reviewing research, a few words were chosen but they also had to "fit" with those already selected … especially for their meanings as each emotion progresses. In context of the panel, they also had to “physically fit in” & after several attempts, came up with these (negatives in brackets):
(Anger) - PEACE
(Hate) - LOVE
(Rage) - JOY
(Destroy) - CREATE
(Hurt) - HEAL
(Pain) - PLEASURE
(Empty) - INTENSE
(Numb) - ALIVE
(Cry) - LAUGH
But … QUESTION .. how to display these in contrast to the other 9? Reviewing the panel & its stitching so far, the red silk looked as if it was about to ‘crinkle up’ in places & form a tube-like channel - again noticing that it “had a life of its own” (something that can happen & will often guide me in its direction). Especially important to this piece was the need to let “emotions progress across the stitching” & felt this may be a way to capture it. Being ‘positive’, these 9 words were visibly ‘rounded’ so were easier to shape … QUESTION … could I use this channeling effect in a similar way as the printed cotton previously - again like a type of reverse appliqué?
Mentally doing this, the top fabric was cut away as a simple rounded outline to allow maximum visibility through a ‘shaped hole’ & with the previous set of thoughts regarding “looking through from inside a heart”, the earlier question was answered. Testing the bandage for size by threading it through the ‘red silk channel’, I found it fitted perfectly in the ‘tubing’ & decided this was definitely the path to follow. Marking each word on the red silk (across the panel) with a pencil (the usual fabric marker wasn’t working too well on this fabric), one word was left over - LAUGH … but somehow it didn’t seem important to include it at this stage so it was omitted.
After outlining all 8 words, a bandage strip was threaded through the slightly raised red silk channel & pinned into position. (Multiple bandage threading across several pieces of silk, had a tendency to crease the bandages more than just by inserting one & in turn, made stitching the letters more difficult, Noticing that the pencil outlines also became faint, the decision was made to insert one bandage at a time.) Each letter was then straight-stitched around but as the red silk easily frayed, only one silk strip at a time was completed. While doing this, I decided to ultimately use a single colour thread for satin-stitching around these letters - a multi colour thread would distract from the outline shape so would be unsuitable.
