Pearly Eyes and Pearly Skies

 This LRRH grew arms and legs as the sky took on a life of it's own and needed a full galaxy of stars planets and comets. The starting point was the death of a much loved and suddenly too holey linen t-shirt that needed a good send off. 

Manuela Mapelli

 An articulated wolf by Manuela Mapelli 

Kosuke Ajiro II

 Kosuke Ajiro

A drop of blood, a blood red tear.

 

I have just finished my latest little red, which started as a red tear and developed into red woven teeth and  little red becoming a drop of blood/ blood tear.  Every time I set out on one of these works it is a surprise. I don't plan them completely, but just start playing with colour, pattern and texture of fabrics layering and playing and then the design grows, and as it grows so does this particular interpretation of the tale and its protagonists. After all these years I still cannot believe how versatile and complex this seemingly simple story is and how it reflects the human story of power, evil, love, death, life, kindness . . . 

This piece is approximately a meter square with sashiko background, my daughter is always bamboozled by the time and effort of the sashiko and wonders why I insist on it but those stitches  and the building of texture is very important to the process., a meditation on humanity that I seem to need.

Manu Montoya

 

There are many wolves in Manu's portfolio and they are a joy, as is all of her imaginary menagerie, in all of their different roles and personas. 

 

The path of the slimy tongue

My new Little Red Riding Hood sashiko, the 6th of this year.

I was talking with my daughter about how long I have been preoccupied with LRRH imagery in my work. She remembers riding her bike (tyres inked) over a piece of paper to make a LRRH piece about road safety when she was 5. This ancient theme, myth, tale stays with me. I use it to make sense of events; personal, ecological and political. Currently it is personal, I need that repetitive stitch, that re-telling with protagonists enacting different roles, ethos, psyches. I need this ancient tale to ground me and show me a path forward even if the path is not one I want to take.