Odyssey 3

I had deliberately made my map smaller than my piece of canvas, to keep my options open for finishing.  I decided I liked the fringey torn edges, so I tore the sides to give me a similar border distance as the bottom of the work.  The right side tore neatly, but the left side didn't want to get started.  Maybe I hadn't cut enough of a starting point; I cut a little more.  Still resisting, so I grabbed both sides of the cut and gave it a really good yank.

It tore quite nicely, but not the whole way across.  When I released my whole-fist grips on either side of the tear, I was appalled to see what had happened.

For some reason, the tear, coming down from the top of the piece, took a right-angle left turn halfway across the canvas and extended a good six inches into the map!

What now?

The old Kathy would have probably
freaked out, and indeed that's what I started to do.  But I am happy to report that within seconds the new mellow Kathy who embraces accidental effects decided this was not a deal-breaker, it just required mending and people could just wonder what that was all about.

Fortunately I told my dear friend and art pal Uta about my mishap and she emailed back, thinking maybe there was a stitch I could use that would reference Odysseus.  And then I realized -- DUH! -- how about referencing Penelope, who took out her weaving every night?

So I mended the tear, leaving the long threads in the center intact, using just enough machine stitching to hold the piece together.  And here's what it looks like.

Like the mythical Odyssey, this journey ended up with more twists and turns than originally planned or anticipated.  But it's finished.

PS -- coincidentally, the canvas is technically a "Penelope canvas" -- that is, it's a plain weave but two threads are held together and used as one.  Perhaps that structure explains why it was so hard to tear.