A Challenge

Q: How do you photograph an enormous floor cushion when your floors are black and London is covered by dark and moody clouds?

A: With great difficulty!

Add to that, that I want to show both the back and front together, and I realise I've set myself quite a challenge. However, with the use of mirrors, drawer handles (to give a sense of scale) a ladder and a sheepskin rug, I think I've just about managed to do justice to my boro inspired cushion. Of course, I could have waited until the sun came out, but Willow has been eyeing the cushion covetously, so I had to take photographs before she gets her claws into it, and, quite literally reduces my work to scraps and rags. (Before you say that we should be stricter with her, Patrick and I try, but she is viciously defiant–we have the scars to prove it).

As you can see, the back is fairly plain. I've used part of a linen metis sheet, which is crisp and gloriously heavy, for the backing, and have added a band of very simple shashiko. I had plans for a hemp leaf design, but in the end thought this overcomplicated and at odds with the cushion top. I fully intend to try a more challenging shashiko project, possibly a drawstring purse of some kind, but at the moment I'm in love with straight lines, and how effective they are when used en masse.

For the fastenings, I've made I-cord from the same variegated cotton perle I used to embroider the cushion, and a few of my indigo dyed Dorset buttons.

I'm really happy with how my cushion turned out, and will make a few more, in the same style. Unfortunately, all the best bits of my indigo dyed fabrics have been used up, so I'll either have to buy some, or find somewhere with the facilities where I can make another batch. Alas, a gardenless flat just doesn't cut it.

Elizabeth,
x.