inktober: a challenge to create an ink drawing every day in October and post it.

Trees come in a multitude of shapes and sizes, but for me the most graceful is the weeping willow.

The reference for this drawing is a photo by Paolo Silvestri from Unsplash.

The drawings continue to be relatively simple. I am starting to run out of ideas for each day’s work, but I am still having fun. Tomorrow we will have passed the half-way mark of October.

 

The Three Graces Temari Ball

The three Graces are part of Greek mythology. They represent qualities of pleasure. I put them on a Japanese Temari ball because they were a challenge to me.

Their names and what they represent varies but commonly are the following:

Left photo: Euphrosyne – joyfulness and mirth

Middle photo: Aglaia – charm and splendor

Right photo: Thalia – beauty and bloom

The three figures dance around the ball connected by a garland of flowers. Each figure is framed by panels of white lattice.

At the top of the ball is a motif representing the sun and at the bottom is the land.

This is a larger ball, 52 cm in circumference. The three Graces were done in free-form embroidery stitches. The lattice between the figures was done in the traditional Japanese flax leaf stitch. The garland of flowers used a couched gold ribbon as its base.

This ball was a great challenge and took months of intermittent work. I designed it and drew sketches of the figures before starting, but I know of no way of marking a free-form embroidery pattern directly on the ball.  Doing embroidery stitches on the curved surface, without being able to get to the back of the work to manipulate the needle on the underside, is quite tricky. I am not completely content with the way some of it came out, but in general the ball was a satisfying piece of work.