The Runner Up to the Grand Prize is Sara Gene Posnett's Jonah and the Whale - a truly out-of-the-box entry in creativity. And for those who know Genie's work, not unexpected as she has been pushing the boundaries for years and sharing it with the classmates. One of the many reasons I chose this entry as the runner up was the yards and yards of custom dyed lacet. When orders went out of lacet in the last six months - I could sit back and guess what was going on. When Genie ordered yards and yards and yards of cream lacet I could only think - "Well I really want to see what she is up to!!"
Jonah is both a needle keep and an emery and fits (fittingly) in the whales mouth. After sharing the end result with me, I asked for a few more pictures to understand some things and that was when she revealed that the Whale is a measuring tape!! What?!? I won't give more details as you have to read below in Genie's own words - including her eloquent reason for choosing the subject!!
I think we can all be in awe of her pieces - and extra thanks to Genie sending me a whole bunch of construction photos to share with everyone as well - soooo interesting, I love the process stuff. In one of the posted pictures, the whale is laying on top of paper that contains calculations of the materials needed, drawings, etc. It is like he is on top of the architectural plans which I find delightful and I hope she keeps those papers somewhere for some museum curator someday!
While I would love to put all the photos here - there are just too many. So for those followers on NING - I will be posting several slides there where more can be seen and enjoyed in large style.
“Jonah and the Whale”
Inspiration by Sara Gene Posnett
Two works from the seventeenth century influenced the
creation of ‘Jonah and the Whale,’ set of smalls for the Thistle Threads
competition 2016. First, it was inspired by the story in King James’
seventeenth century English translation of the Bible of Jonah’s encounters with
danger, when he tried to avoid visiting the people of Nineveh. It reminds me of
myself and my tendency to avoid uncomfortable tasks. Second, in researching to create a Cabinet of
Curiosities depicting Historic St Mary’s City, Maryland, images of ships in the
ceiling at Hook Manor in England came to my attention. A whale’s tail is visible
at the lower edge of the plaster works.
That started my imagination going, and when the Thistle Threads challenge
came, Jonah and a whale seemed a perfect subject for a set of smalls for my St
Mary’s City in casket of curiosities.
Techniques - by Sara Gene Posnett
Tricia Nguyen advised that we make mock ups of projects, so
I made three paper versions of the whale while developing the final shape. Finally, an armature of hand-made paper from
scraps of old clothes at HSMC was covered with buckram for increased durability,
which when dampened allowed me to give more shape to the form. Then row upon
row of over-dyed lacet was stitched together over the belly and back forms, as
well as the wired shapes of the tail and fins to form the “purple cow.” The edges of the fins, tail and lips are over
dyed and braided kumihimo, worked of Soie de Paris and silver passing. My
husband soldered aviation wire to my specs for the spout, which comes out of
the blow hole. Flat silver tape covers the reel, on which to wind a four-inch paper
measuring tape inside the whale’s head.
A surface-stitched fish, my young granddaughter’s suggestion, serves as
a pull tab on the end of the tape measure. The whale’s barnacles are silver
hammered rick rack from the Frostings Club. The cone of the whale’s body is
filled with needle-felted wool, and doubles as a pincushion where I cut away
the paper armature from the blow hole to tail.
In the whale’s mouth,
behind the baleen made of flattened silver coil from the Frostings Club, lies
Jonah. His green cloak is filled with
emery sand to sharpen my needles, and his head is stuffed with needle-felted wool
for parking a needle. Jonah’s cloak and
hair are composed of lacet stitched together. His beard is lacet and silk
wrapped gimp, with crystal beads for water droplets.
What a fun project this was to make! I couldn’t foresee the
final product, but it developed one step
at a time over the course of six months. Now complete, it’s such fun to play
with! Thanks Tricia for challenging us!
I had to read Genie's description many times before I understood that there were water droplets as beads in his beard!! What wonderful attention to detail! |