Well, although I could go on for a long time in PSE, drawing lines on photos of sand ripples to explore the idea of holes making a lace pattern based on the brights and darks, once I began to think of it as ‘sandlace’,  it seemed time to pick up needle and thread and start working with the idea !!

My first sample, the grey and cream in the upper right corner, below, was of the cream, bonded on one side, holes cut out and the edge shaped, then ironed on to the grey background.  Although I did a little stitching, and I liked it, it also seemed too flat, too ‘neat and careful’, I felt.

The grey and brown on the left is also heat bonded, and really, the small cut-outs feel too small to do much about – so I am just leaving that as is.  Which is what making samples is all about – its certainly not about finishing anything off, unless you specially want to, of course.

The third sample I did was cream, sewn to grey and then cut out after the orange stitches, which worked well – can you tell I’m keen on the florescent thread?  And, the dark grey stitching is actually attaching the whole thing to one of those painted stretched canvases I have around, its 20cm sq. – and I have several 30cm sq, so I will mount them as I do them, because that worked well, too.  On larger pieces there will be room for several French knots or other textural stitches if I want them.