this is better....

No matter how good the fibulae looked individually, when added to the jacket, they looked…creepy. Like some alien life form eating the tweed. Yuck. So now they’re arranged as a group, in a formation moving up the jacket, over the shoulder, and then down the back.

In the first, more random-looking placement, I was trying to match the fibula with certain work areas - to have each fibula working on a torn seam, or a frayed lapel. But it looked awful as a full composition.

I’ve got these fibulae basted to the jacket, sewn on enough to hold them temporarily. Now I can keep an eye on them for a few days, see who needs to be moved, before I sew them permanently. The explanatory pocket handkerchief is still just a scrap of cloth.

I’m especially happy with the fibula on the edge of the torn sleeve (below). She manages to fit into the flow of fibulae, while working on a torn segment.

(below) The woman right in the center of the back is based on an African heddle pulley.

Let’s take a minute to explain about heddle pulleys. A heddle is a part of a loom that lets the weaver raise and lower certain warp threads (below)

(below) This contemporary African weaver has two pulleys on his loom (and is wearing an outrageously loud shirt).

In some African countries, these pulleys are beautifully carved (below)

So I’ve included my version of a carved heddle pulley in the fibulae.

The plan is to have threads connecting her to the loom & weaver right below her, and then down to one of the earliest loom images….neither of their looms have heddles, of course…. but the small weaver does have a thingie from an actual heddle. This thingie is (confusingly) also called a heddle. (below) Here’s the full heddle thingie, which I cut to fit the fibula.

(a few days later) ….and that’s where I was when my (safely masked) sister visited and said “but it just doesn’t invite the eye”. She was right. More next week.

Stay warm. Stay safe. And by the way: Amazon delivers cookies. Just saying…