As Gina informs me of the recent flurry of sign ups, I’m getting excited about my Eternity Retreat next October. Sounds like a long time from now, right? But when I think of the stitch guide to be written and developed, the kits to be assembled and the myriad details to be worked out, I believe the next ten months are going to fly by.
In my life I strive for a balance between developing new ideas and directions and completing what I’ve begun. The Eternity project was once a new idea I had about designing a canvas that communicated a specific theme with some depth of thought and expression, rather than one that is light in nature. I also wanted to design something beautiful, rather than whimsical and I wanted to challenge myself with designing in a monochromatic color scheme. (If you know my work, you know I use color in a big way.)
With this piece I am exploring the theme of the beauty found in the eternal cycles of life. I wanted to remind the viewer (and myself) that we are all a part of the whole. To deliver this message, I employed the elements of: earth, air, fire and water; the four seasons; and Kanji, translated as “Eternity”.
To stay within my design guidelines of a monochromatic palette, I chose black, white and gray. Then I added gold as my accent color. Because we in the needlepoint world “paint” with threads, gray can become silver and any color can be stitched in a matt, shiny or metallic thread. While a challenge to “do it right,” I discovered that working with a monochromatic palette was anything but limiting or boring. I then worked the design in a variety of interesting stitches and beads and it became not just another piece of needlepoint, but to my mind, a work of art.
As a footnote, the completion of Eternity spawned a whole new line of Asian-inspired designs and yep, they are all very colorful. Some things never change.
Happy Holidays,
Kathy Paterson
Bongo Designs
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