Embroidered botanical drawing

For the last 2 years I have been embroidering coffee sacks; a dozen or so have been exhibited locally and it likely that they will be returned to the land of coffee for display in 2020 when I celebrate 70 years!

However, they are monsters (in a good way) and not perhaps one something one might hang over the mantel piece unless you live in a barn; then of course a sack might lend itself perfectly.  Enough to say I have perhaps I have exhausted the possibilities for a while.  During my last visit I bought a stash of floor cloths!! They are sold on every street corner in Rio for pence. Made of cotton and sewn like a sack so it can be slipped over a broom head like a sleeve and used to dry and polish the floor after it has been washed.  So, I am able to open them up like the sacks and ‘embroider’ them.

I have worked on some already and have begun a series of botanical drawings.  The first is the Gossypium hirsutum better known as upland cotton.  I didn’t have a clue what the plant looked like so had to spend a morning at the Kew Garden Library; I saw masses of pictures and read some literature; so while I do know what it looks like in my head; stitched on a dyed floor cloth it might not cut the mustard … nonetheless I am so pleased I am going to do Woad next of which I know nothing … so I feel another visit coming on.