I couldn’t resist adding eyes to the geese and a few reeds as in the original image.
I only used one layer of padding – two would have been more effective. I forgot to turn my tracing over so the birds are facing in the opposit direction. I think I would have preferred them the other way.
The birds are attached simply by stitching an eye. The feathers were tricky to stitch with all the points.
I have used simplified forms for the resolved piece. I would have liked to put in wing feathers but knew it would look a mess. The background was made by printing wax eggs, creasing the wax once dry to get a batik effect, before painting over. The yellow birds are on hand dyd cotton that I had sprayed with walnut ink through a mesh which had not been very successful. The two reddish birds are bleached cottonand are padded and together with thefree standing blue bird I made larger to contrast with the others and bring focus to the piece. I added some shapes in a transparent fabric which I am pleased with as I think they give an added dimension. In the end I decided the feathers would spoil the piece so left them out. I am pleased with the way it has turned out.
