Thinking about a finish..

Tynemouth Priory has been in progress for what seems like forever. It was started when I was working on “Leaving The Tyne, 1915”, as part of the many experiments it took took to make that piece the success it eventually became. And it was: I am still very pleased with Leaving The Tyne, and extremely glad that my father saw it before he died, and maybe was able to see something of where my embroidery was headed.

I finished this version over lockdown giving it a new sky and a new river (rather sea-like, I admit, but if you know where the Priory stands on the headland, you’ll know that that isn’t unreasonable!). Then I stared at it perplexedly and put it in a box until Later. They say Tomorrow Never Comes, but the aphorism says nothing about the vaguer Later.

I have decided that Later is Now, if you follow me, and that since I am still quite pleased with it, I should mount it properly and send it out into the world for someone else to enjoy. That in turn means I need to decide how to deal with it.

Since the needlelace is raised, it can’t go in a frame, and in any case, I’m not keen on putting embroidery behind glass. So I’m trying to choose a fabric that I can mount it on.

Although having put all my photos in landscape orientation, I’m having second thoughts. I think I’ll turn the canvas into portrait orientation and then mount the picture above the centreline, giving a space of fabric at the bottom to lead in. I wonder whether that changes my decision?