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Monday 8 November 2010

The Cabin, stage 1

I'm working on a fibre art scene for a gift that someone wants to give to a relative.  It's "the family cabin".  There are approximately one hundred thousand lakes in our prairie province (100,000!!), so pretty much anyone you talk to has access to a cabin.  This piece will be a surprise for grandma.  So don't tell her!  Here are the photos I have to work with.


And that's all I have to work with!  So I met with the owner of the pics to put all the details together.  Here's a bit of what we came up with in a (very) loose sketch.

the rumpled paper I took home

I'm glad I met with her yesterday!  There were many things she pointed out that I hadn't seen.... things that NEED to be in there.  There were things like the fire pit, because that's where they gathered.  There were orangy-red begonias that were important to grandma, and all well placed.  There was a lamp in the bushes that grandpa made.  There was the addition to the cabin that I couldn't see in the photos.  So it was fun to sit with her and discover all the treasures there were in these old pictures.

This morning I took out the sketch and the frame and measured the canvas.  On paper, I brought the house to scale that will fit nicely in the shadow box.  I want it to be right and perfectly in proportion, so I used a measuring tape and a calculator.  

ps.  Those are cm, not inches.  It is VERY small.

This gives me a good template for the building, which will be fabric.  I love the patio lanterns!  Those will all be glass beads.  The tree branches will be couched yarn.  The greenery will be collaged and thread painted.  And the begonias will be french knots most likely.  Here are some of the things I pulled from my stash in preparation.


Whew!  This is teeny, teeny work!  As always, it makes a HUGE mess.  lol  I'm a little nervous.  This is going to be very challenging, which is good.  Wish me luck.  I hope you like it Grandma!  (...shhhhh don't tell her!)  Now back to work.



~Monika
on a cold and rainy Monday.

5 comments:

darkdreamer said...

You are amazing! Your scale drawing is about perfect. I can't wait to see the progress as you go.... Grandma will love it and so will the rest of the family :) Thank you!

darkdreamer said...

But I have to say there are in fact 100,000 lakes in our province....info from a Tourism Saskatchewan employee...

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

YES - thank you for the correction! I read it as SK tourism long long time ago... couldn't recall how many zeros! lol

Anonymous said...

I just know it's going to be beautiful and your friend's Grandma is going to be so happy :).
Stay inspired!

Royce said...

I love seeing how you plan and get started on this project. Will be following to see how it progresses. Excellent job.

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