A Whale of a Tale

According to my beloved Paper Place (and its mysterious cousin, the Japanese Paper Place), this June is all about washi (click for Wikipedia-based learnin'!). I had the pleasure of attending a lovely washi workshop a few months ago at the Japanese Paper Place, and, having learned about promptly promised Freedom Clothing Collective I'd make a piece for their washi-inspired exhibition.

Being a master procrastinator, I left the actual creation of the piece until the last minute, but I'm mercifully happy with the final result. It's in line with my current nautical obsession - here's a shot of the watercolour background, pre-shadowboxing:



And the finished piece (photo taken in the GORGEOUS garden that's attached to the building in which my new studio lives...mega-super bonus, guys)!



The shadowbox is 5" x 7", which means this here ship measures approximately 1" in length...



...while the whale is just a bit bigger at 2.5" or so.



Both of the washi items were hand-sewn with gold embroidery thread, which was stressful (thankfully the paper is impressively strong and resists ripping pretty darn well), but ended up giving an appealing atmosphere to the final setup (I like to think it's slightly reminiscent of the handmade dream-scenes in Science of Sleep, though that may be wishful thinking). Once it was finished, I also realized it reminded me of one of my favourite prints by Canadian printmaker David Blackwood:

I swear the resemblance wasn't purposeful, but the end result, which is kind of a kid's book version of the print, certainly amuses me!