Reveiling Esther 4:1

I already wrote a blog about some of the background of the book of Esther and the design/background research I did. 

Now for some technical details. I decided to make a fabric collage in a neutral palette. So I fused steam-a-seam on several pieces of tonal fabrics and layed it out in a square. I cut some pieces of hessian (jute) and distressed this to give the impression of torn clothes. 

I copied the cuneiform script from the Behistun Inscription, established by king Darius the Great. I took me quite a few hours, I felt like a monk ;)

I preferred it to be an abstract piece (meaning no literal Mordechai with torn clothes), but I still managed to hide a face profile in it. 
Composition is something I think long and hard about and I usually sketch a minimum of 8 different compositions. It's important the whole is well balanced and also has a little tension. Hence the teardrops to repeat the blue and the jute to repeat in the corner. 

I am very happy how my cuneiform script turned out, with the Bibleverse woven into it. It was actually very scary to quilt over it, but the irregular grid is very fitting and symbolic.

Let's show you how it turned out, hope you enjoy it!

 I thought I share a short work- in- progress update. I started on the book of Esther. There's no chapter 3:16, so I moved to chapter 4:1 as Donald E. Knuth does in his book "3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated"

"When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry."

The book of Esther tells the story of a beautifull young Jewish woman who becomes queen of Persia and saves her people.

Haman, the enemy, wants to eleminate all the Jews. King Xerxes orders a decree which spells out the destruction of the Jews. When Mordechai, Esthers cousin, hears of this he rents his clothes and puts on sackcloth and ashes.

When I read this verse I knew I had to make something with burlap (hessian) fabric. As this is used to make sacks and is coarse.

I also started researching in which language the decree would have been written and. I came across: Aramaic, Old Persian (Cuneiform). It's a script the Persians invented and looks very interesting. In Iran is a piece discovered which recorded the feats of the Achaemenid king Darius the Great. I have used this script and have used papyrus (which I bought in Egypt about 12 years ago :)) The Persians most likely used papyrus to write on.

So far some background on my research. I'll show a few pictures of my progress so far!

 Revealing Ezra and Nehemiah 3:16

Ezra and Nehemiah

The book of Ezra has no chapter 3:16, but I could go on in chapter 4 and use verse 3. Instead I have chosen to put Ezra and Nehemiah together as it's the same time period and also describes the same topic. 

Nehemiah 3:16

16 After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of the half part of Bethzur, unto the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and unto the house of the mighty.

Ezra before him and many men after Nehemiah started coming back from excile and had it in their hearts desire to rebuild the temple: the gates were burned and Jerusalem was still in ruins. 

They got a lot of opposition.

Once I started designing a few things came in mind:

There was a lot of prayer involved and answer to prayer too. I thought about a ladder as a symbol of prayer going up and down. A ladder also would have been used in a literal way.

There needed to be ruins, grave yards, sword and trowel ( 4:18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded.) And symbols of hope.

Lot of free motion, but I thought the wall was too solid. Risking cutting some layers away.....

I was nearly finished when I started writing the verse over and under the rainbow. I really didn't like it:( So I cut of the whole top part and instead used a black, mottled fabric. This way the sword and trowel could be hand stitched and be more visible. I am glad I took the pain. It's nearly done now. Need to darken the stones and do some more free motion stitching. I have done a lot of slow stitching on this as I thought it quite fitting with all the manual labour this is depicting.