Emotions: Delight

Since I found our previous theme, "A Headline from a Newspaper," to be stressful, with this theme I allowed myself the treat of working with a pleasant emotion, the delight that creativity brings me. 

At the beginning of a new project, first I feel a delicious sense of empty space stretching before me -- what will happen? I choose a background and some thread, and as the stitching starts, the threads build up like a seawall, pushing away the outside world, and the passing of time.

Stitching rows of beautiful thread sweeps away the stress of the outside world.

Then, as I survey my lovely supplies of scraps, samples, paints, notions, and threads, all sorts of possibilities rise up and suggest themselves. What colors am I feeling today? How will the lines flow? What elaborate stitches can my machine do? Can I thread another yarn through that afterward? Don't I have some metal around here somewhere?

"Delight"

The bottom border, of my handwoven fabric, is important because that symbolizes that I have previously finished a project, and now I can move on to this new, as-yet-undesigned piece.  The large dark semi-circle with rays shows a fresh project beginning to dawn.

Moving upward, we get into the space I have staked out for working, and the colorful circles and thread streamers are all the ideas that pop into my head. The negative space at the top signifies that the ideas have not solidified yet; no final design has been chosen.

I think someone looking at this piece might say, "It doesn't look finished," but that is the point.  I wanted to capture the positive feeling of getting to start something new, and I am happy with it!

If you would like to see more of how I made this piece, you can see my post about it on my home blog, Deep in the Heart of Textiles.