Boro and Bernuthsfeld Weerdinge

Last week, I introduced the Weerdinge Men, who are the main characters in this week's post. The photo above shows printed images of the Weerdinge Men laid over white wool coat sections, with original in top left corner.

When they were found, the Weerdinge couple were named  Joan and Darby.....until they were recognized as 2 men. I'm naming them Boro and Bernuthsfeld, (Bernie?) and dressing them accordingly.

This one will not have any resist, so the figures just need to be printed on craft paper, and traced in thread on the wool.

I figured if I stitched my white resist threads and color-bleeding threads on the white wool first, I could cover them with various colors of wool. Here's the test to see if that worked.

Yep! Bernie (on the right) is just dandy; Boro (on the left) has great color and pretty good resist stitches. The blue thread that I added (see panel on the side) left almost no color transfer. Rats. Oh well.

On the left are the bundles of wool harvested from Goodwill clothing. On the right are the color tests for each of those bundles. At some point, I realized that I could have a lot more control of the color transfers if I cut out a dark wool shape...

...and sewed the small pieces of wool onto that - like I did with the black-and-gray goddess figure.

As I cut and pin each piece, I have to keep track of what color it's going to be, not what color it is. What was it that Ginger Rogers said about dancing backwards and in heels?

OK now: I have most of the pieces pinned on, so I took a photo, and put it together with a picture of the tests. Now I can use photoshop to see (more or less) what it will actually look like:

Basically good! The lighter colors on the arm and leg stand out, and  the transfers have enough difference to give variety. That pinkish-intestinal shape has to go, and some tweaking is needed, but this might just work.

All sections are now sewn on. And I'm embroidering on this piece, hoping that the thread will color transfer to the white wool (yes, of course I tested to see if that works, but hey - results vary).

In the blog post notice, you saw Boro & Bernie in front of a field of Bronze Age weaving patterns (like the ones in the upper right corner). In the compromise of history and art, I sewed strips of wool over some sections to create stripe patterns on the color transfer...I hope. The selvedge stitching (on the edge of that army-green fabric) transferred on my tests, and - please, please, please - will transfer here.

Up at Bernie's neck is a bit of a sweater collar. OK, Bernie's dressed, with the multi-fabric cloth of Bernuthsfeld Man. Now we need the accompanying patchwork of Japanese Boro:

Same process with Boro: pin, photo, check my colors:

When I printed out this reference sheet, I desaturated and lightened the colors on the right - it saves ink and  I only need that image to check numbers.

ah, yes, all the behind-the-scenes glamour: a cell phone photo of the work in my lap. Boro is resting on a green pillow (which holds the work at just the right height) with my legs sticking out in front.

Now I have a lot of stitching to do. So far, I've got just 2 sections filled with the resist stitches (see above). So - results next week!

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