Grizzly Bear - Day 8 - Complete

When I had applied the background, I had decided NOT to run the strips across fully, but rather break them at the border of the bear. I thought I would reduce bulk and save fabric.

 

Consequently, I needed to pad the bear a bit. In retrospect my cutting the strips did not really save me any fabric and in fact was the reason I had difficulty keeping the lines straight.

So I tacked him down with invisible thread and moved on.
I used a technique I saw at the CQA show that I referenced in an earlier post, stitching some detail off the piece on hooped netting.

 

I made several different widths in the gold and a bit in brown in order to better feature the top edges of the bear's coat.

After it was applied with the same colours thread, I feathered inward with a few other colours to blend the applique and hide the extra netting. When I over stitched it I tacked it loosely onto the background and irregular intervals, so it didn't look like a clowns ruff. I was pleased with the results as it gave the coat edge more dimension.

Last, I went over his underbelly and lower legs with black. In addition to adding more shadow I lightly defined the individual legs. This bear is not Thread Painted, he is Thread Sketched.

He also needs to be lightly pressed yet to remove the horizontal folds that occurred when I rolled the canvas to get it into my machine, This is the reason I ship the finished pieces rolled outward with newsprint. The creases end up on the backing and not the image.

 

Added some water sloshing at his ankles and he was complete.
I will finish this with a narrow binding, probably the dark grey water batik.
Then he's off tomorrow, home, to the Columbia Basin and my gallery in Golden BC.