Continuing the explorations of textures in the SAQA 100 Day Challenge Reboot, I’m experimenting with an idea suggested by an image I pinned on Pinterest of a highly informal grid layout of a watercolour painting. I searched, but the artist’s name the name was too hard to find, so I’m just posting the link so you can see where this inspiration comes from.

Next, I had to decide the stitch treatment for each.

First, the left sample above – I am happy with the effect, but I didn’t anticipate how the quite light fawn thread would show through the cream fabric when it rested against the white paper coating of the foamcore. I could unpick the little x’s, but on the other hand I quite like their unexpected diagrammatic, star constellation effect, something I could use sometime, maybe.

Second, on the right side of the top photo – definitely one to repeat in several ways:

• the link to the watercolourist’s website includes lines in the composition which could be represented with stem stitch or couched lines
• strong plain coloured shapes could have this kind of halo placed over them and stitched with this or other textures
• on a very large scale, the ‘halo’ itself could have cut or burned holes in it …