Back To Work :(

After a nice weekend with little accomplished art/sewing-wise, it is Monday and back to work. And a long day as DH teaches after work tonight, so I have the studio till at least 9 p.m.

ICK.

I'll just state that right here up front. I am hitting a mental block with the banners---but no matter, I have to push forward, and I have about a week realistically, to get them DONE. Hear that??? DONE. OUT. I need my upstairs studio back.
So you, gentle readers (and especially the not-so-gentle among you!!!) need to REMIND ME that I have to get them finished........soon.
Insert update photos here:





By the way, all those little tassels will be cut off their base and sewn on individually. Insanity in the making.......
Fringe sewing is like corralling a giant slithering worm---I hate it, I hate trying to pin it and keep it where it should be. The stamping process isn't bad---rather fun, the pearl sewing is meditative, but this part just plain SUCKS. And most of what I'm doing from here on involves copious quantities of pins (things that get stuck in ME mostly) and, oh yes, more pins. Like putting the braid all the way up the sides of each one, and the welt cord (which at this point, may or may not go on. I have to see if it needs it.)
I guess, not unlike other artists, I have a limit of mental attention for any project, and due to the problems I had at the very beginning of these, I am ready to move on. And really, they are sooooo close to being done.
Am I the only one who goes through this on large projects? It isn't the type of "My work isn't good enough" non-completion complex---it is "I've seen this so long I can't take it another day and don't CARE" which, for as long as I have worked in any artistic form, I should NOT be allowing myself to slip into.
What makes us do this? Is the idea, the muse, such a shifting, flitting thing that we have to grab it and nail it to the table? Does any project only have so much good working life in it?
I have always had problems with this and it would be interesting to see if others fall into my boat, or if they have some sort of discipline to keep this from happening.
Input please.....puh-leeeeeeeze! (or volunteers to come help finish it....I cook really good!!!)

Work Interruptus

Somehow in between snow removal, bird feeding, laundry and tree wrassling (i.e. the removal of the Christmas decs) I have managed to do a bit of slow work on the banners. Fabric printing is one of those things I love/hate. I love it when it turns out perfect and how I envisioned it and everything flows, and usually this is when I am working on a small piece.
BUT!
There is nothing small about this project, and each trip out here requires uninterrupted time and a lot of hand and shoulder strength to get the paint into the weave of the linen I chose. I still have a set of prints to put in between what you see here, and they will be of the richer gold that the bottom of the banners are printed with.


The full amount that was stamped


Close up of pattern---the space between each pattern is approximately 6" square

I started with a pearly white paint that went on a little splotchy, which was FINE due to the fact I wanted a somewhat aged/used feel. But then I got back away from it and.........WOW.........it just looked like a bunch of pure white polka dots, which was not even close to my *vision*!!!! (more like nightmare) This set of banners has caused problems from the start, and I accept the challenge and just keep moving forward with them. At any rate, the white polka dots just about did it; I was ready to e-mail the church and say the banners were shot and I quit. You know, sometimes you get to that point with things.
Instead, I did some of the other things listed above and kept thinking. On a trip to the basement to store items, I came across two bottles of a fine gold wash that spoke to me. I tried them on a scrap, but not enough gold. So I added some loose gold pigment to a bottle and tried again. Perfect!
Then I got out the monster stamp---7 " wide and of heavy latex foam, originally a stamp for walls---and began the slow task of reprinting and making sure the registration on each was close. *Perfect* is not attainable. What I strive for is *Acceptable*. This, too, printed with less than perfection, but over the top of the pearl, it looked good. It was what I wanted.
Today, providing I have time to just work and not juggle life, I'm going for the in between stampings. Will mix the paint and then stamp like a mad woman!
The mad woman part isn't too difficult....... ;)