{"id":15863,"date":"2025-07-15T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=15863"},"modified":"2025-07-04T21:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:11:15","slug":"theres-going-to-be-a-woodpecker-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/15\/theres-going-to-be-a-woodpecker-too\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s going to be a woodpecker, too.."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Fine<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I am going to start rereading the book again, at some point soon, but in the meantime, since I’ve rediscovered my “Vision of Placidus” notebook, I know that one of the birds I was going to include is a woodpecker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to have to go to the shops and find some more gauze soon, as well, but while I can squeeze an animal in to the existing fabrics, I will do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve commented before, I think, that getting a readable and workable design drawing onto gauze is a non-trivial exercise, but this opaque white line (a Posca pen) is pretty much the best I’ve found so far, and it also allows me to help myself by putting a few extra emphases on the lightest parts.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"First<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It’s amazing how quickly these little animals go, once I have a chance to get started. In fact, I was so entranced by how Woody was growing that I didn’t stop to take photos. In fact, I barely stopped to draw breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this photograph shows a single afternoon’s work. I’ve used mostly fine silk threads, although his red breeches are a soft perle, and some of the white is probably cotton. As for approach – I simply tangle my stitches together, feather stitch variations, Cretan stitch variations, the occasional chain stitch or straight stitch. What I’m hoping is that the tangle of stitches will create a subtle variation in colour that will help the whole thing feel alive when it’s viewed from a reasonable distance.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Woodpecker,<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I didn’t have much I wanted to add, in the end. A few highlights, filling in the wings a little, and then really the woodpecker is done. I may add more when it comes to assembling the piece (remember all those seed stitches I added to the View of the Excavation <\/a>once I started assembling the Dreams of Amarna <\/a>panels?), but that can wait until I know what is being balanced with what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been thinking, on and off, since I was asked about it after my talk, that assembling Placidus may prove to be an exceptionally challenging process. The panel I envisage is going to be about five foot by four foot, and I have a horrible feeling I’m going to be propping it against a wall or slinging it from hooks or even emulating one or other of the great Impressionists by somehow arranging a slot in the floor to drop it into while I tackle the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe I shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to finish this one…!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am going to start rereading the book again, at some point soon, but in the meantime, since I’ve rediscovered my “Vision of Placidus” notebook, I know that one of the birds I was going to include is a woodpecker. I’m going to have to go to the shops and find some more gauze soon,… Continue Reading There’s going to be a woodpecker, too..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[306,25,22,114,312],"class_list":["post-15863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animal-vignettes","tag-experiments","tag-stitches","tag-vision-of-placidus","tag-woodpecker","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15863"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15922,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15863\/revisions\/15922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}