To Touch, Handle

Years ago, I did two series of appliqué pieces, which you can see here. The first series, Applied Forces, was done as an installation for the year Regina hosted the Grey Cup - there were a lot of vacant storefronts downtown and artists were commissioned to fill them. The fabrics were very glam - bright, luxurious satins and crushed velvets. I am happy to say they were purchased by the Dunlop Art Gallery. The second series was composed of wool suiting and necktie fabric, and titled Robes of Power, now in the collection of the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Looking back, I was probably at the height of my success in the art world: receiving grants, getting shows, being on boards. 

Now, I have returned to the same idea of a handwritten word, mirrored and rotated. This will be a one-off, I think, but never say never. The word "integrity" reared up and took hold in my mind. I made a small cut out, and it sat for several months, never losing its grip on me. It was insistent.

I ordered the fabric first. (From The Felt Store, a wonderful Canadian company.) A pure wool, 3 mm thick designer felt in two colours, both measuring 72" x 36". It was astoundingly expensive, and I hesitated to cut it into it for another couple of months. In the meantime, I traced and redrew my word until I was satisfied, had it enlarged on a large format copier, and tweaked it again. Above you can see my template positioned on the two layers of felt.

I used my skills from the olden days of working as a graphic artist. I cut through the layers with a #11 X-Acto knife, by hand. Yes, the technology surely exists to have had it laser cut, but as I keep saying to people, "Our hands are capable of amazing things."

Switching out the two layers worked perfectly. It was a thrilling moment, knowing it was going to work.  (And, as Deb asks in the comments, there will be two panels, each the reverse of the other. This "counterchange" technique of inlay appliqué is an old technique, popular in Victorian times and still practised with jaw dropping artistry by the people of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.)

I am stitching over the join with a lace-weight silk thread from Maiwa, trying to keep the stitches perpendicular to the join. The stitch is so simple it doesn't even have a name - it is a straight stitch, repeated like a ladder. Each stitch takes almost an inch of thread, due to the thickness of the felt. The felt is also very firm, so it takes a fair amount of strength to push the needle through the layers. I have been wearing Thera-gloves and using a thimble to help support my hands.

The stitching also attaches the felt to a layer of thin cotton muslin, which is stretched on a frame of 1x4's, supported on either side by a couple of totes. It is in front of sliding doors to the deck, and I can look out to the trees beyond to rest my eyes.

Some of my research:

integer (n.)

"a whole number" (as opposed to a fraction), 1570s, from Latin integer (adj.) "intact, whole, complete," figuratively, "untainted, upright," literally "untouched," from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + root of tangere "to touch," from PIE root *tag- "to touch, handle," from PIE root *tag- "to touch, handle." The word was used earlier in English as an adjective in the Latin sense, "whole, entire" (c. 1500).

integrity (n.)

c. 1400, "innocence, blamelessness; chastity, purity," from Old French integrité or directly from Latin integritatem (nominative integritas) "soundness, wholeness, completeness," figuratively "purity, correctness, blamelessness," from integer "whole" (see integer). Sense of "wholeness, perfect condition" is mid-15c.

touch (v.)

late 13c., "make deliberate physical contact with," from Old French tochier "to touch, hit, knock; mention, deal with" (11c., Modern French toucher), from Vulgar Latin *toccare "to knock, strike" as a bell (source also of Spanish tocar, Italian toccare), perhaps of imitative origin. Related: Touched; touching.

From c. 1300 in the transitive sense "bring into physical contact," also "pertain to." Other senses attested from 14c. are "perceive by physical contact, examine by sense of touch," also "be or come into physical contact with; come to rest on; border on, be contiguous with;" also "use the sense of touch," and "mention, describe." From early 14c. as "affect or move mentally or emotionally," with notion of to "touch" the heart or mind.