Thursday 14 July 2011

Dressing a Crow


A friendly crow has strutted onto
a piece of wool blanket
that recently spent a few days wrapped around tree bark and tea bags.

He is in the process of telling me his story.
As far as I can tell
he has wandered under a huge chestnut tree
and someone is showering him with
horse chestnuts (conkers to some of us).

This will be for a show on spoonerisms.
The original phrase is "crushing blow"
which as a spoonerism is "blushing crow".


At the moment I'm dressing him.
The spirals and reddish thread were a surprise...
but he's supposed to be blushing and 
perhaps he has some Celtic blood in him.


The background will be covered in stitches that haven't identified themselves yet.
I'm working out how to make the teabag stains
look like conkers.
At least one of the conkers will be a spiral to match the handsome fellah.
Don't want to be too literal.
Right now I have to sit back
and listen to what the cloth wants done next.

This is going to be fun!

17 comments:

  1. Penny your stitcheries are wonderful and I especially love your crow....'blushing crow'.

    Spoonerism, I had never heard of that before. Love learning something new.

    I am keen to follow your progress on this piece.

    Jacky xox

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful to see how your creative process works. Am looking forward to following the progress of this piece.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are too funny!! Poor crow, the "conkers" really hurt!! I know because as a child, I remember sitting in a tree, throwing them down at my younger brother and his friends. I think my mother grounded me for quite a while after that prank! LOL! BTW, spirals are as natural to you as air, so it's no wonder the crow will be blushingly covered with them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. its coming along so nicely...I enjoy seeing the creative process.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Celtic blushing crow is a delight. And I'm glad to know someone else's embroidery talks to them...

    ReplyDelete
  6. great background and you always know just how to fill it. great.

    ReplyDelete
  7. your fair corbie is blushing as we admire him :)looking forward to seeing this one develop!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your story is just as wonderful as the art! Thanks for the swelling of my heart.

    annie!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm in love with the crow cloth - crows and spirals, not a surprise I would be spirited away with this!

    And I love the spoonerism as well. My word verification word is "burflyi".... I imagine its to do with your cloth... cause if conkers weren't flying at the crow, maybe burrs would be?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Brilliant. I love spoonerisms. I also love the way you post the whole process so that we can see how the cloth grows. A crushing blow will never be quite the same again, so thank you for that!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love this Spoonerism...love this crow piece. It's funny, but crows have always been annoying to me, even now they can be so loud as to wake me from my slumber! But seeing the represented with such caring on so many stitching blogs is slowly changing my mind!
    Wonderful book you may enjoy..."Crow and Weasel" by Barry Lopez.
    http://www.amazon.com/Crow-Weasel-Barry-Lopez/dp/B003MAJNI0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310671031&sr=8-1

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love the crow! So playful...

    ReplyDelete
  13. The stitched spirals on Crow are beautiful! I look forward to hearing more of its story.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Creating is a process and each one of us approaches it in our own unique way. I think I am happiest when the cloth talks loud and tells me what to do! Perhaps I just take direction well.
    I'm hoping Anne Marie's little brother got his revenge!
    And I'm smiling because I think Valerianna would like anything with a spiral on it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. i think i remember the conkers had little spikes on them so your stitching seems right to me. Love the crow and his spirals, tho i think i'd call him a raven if he was down here.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hmmmm - are you sure your crow isn't a magpie? He's a most handsome fellow anyway!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment, your thoughts are most welcome.