SOLAR BARGE (WAP; Istanbul #4)

The Giza Plateau isn't home to just pyramids.
Also housed there is a purpose built museum where a Solar Barge rests in pride of place.
This barge, also known as the 'Khufu' Ship, is believed to have been buried in the plateau around 2500BC & was rediscovered in 1954.  However, it was no longer intact when it was found,  it was in 1200 pieces, which experts then spent the next 14 years putting together!! (I suspect they are all VERY good at jigsaw puzzles!!)

We were immediately amazed at the size of this boat & the elegant shape of it's stern & hull. I particularly liked the shape of the oars, the were like sharp pointed narrow leaves with long stems.

It was a very good exhibit to visit so early in our adventure in Egypt, because the image of this distinct style of boat, was one we were going to see many times over in tomb & temple art. 

The first tomb visit was the very next day!
The Solar Barge refers to the boat that carries the sun god (Ra) across the heavens each day.
However, even the boats carrying hunters & fishermen resembled the shape of the ancient boat we had seen.

The tomb carvings mesmerized me with their rich illustrations & use of pattern.  Regrettably we weren't allowed to take photos in the tombs, unless we slipped money to the guard.  Even slipping a few notes to the man guarding the Tomb of Ti didn't guarantee that my photos would be very good though!!


For this week's art project, I decided to combine the linear aspects of the background above, with the zigzag water & a solar barge.

I started with some very rough drawing notes using my graphite crayon, which, being quite thick...meant simple lines & little detail!  These look like  useless scribbles, but they were actually an effective means for me to capture the visual information I needed, in order to take this design making process further. 

My sketches progressed to sepia pens & eventually a splash of watercolour.
These were the bones of a design that soon came together .

Choosing fabrics didn't take long either, & my colour palette was chosen to represent the colours I'd seen remnants of in the tomb carvings.

I decided to bring my design to life in two sections, which would mean two different outlines.  The first would be the background section.  I stitched in the lines, but didn't immediately cut it back...

...as I wanted to first sew on the wad of fabrics that would become the barge & oars.  I chose to stitch these in blue to connect the boat to the indigo coloured water that would appear in the background.

It was time for the cutting back to begin...

This was the finished piece & I confess to not being totally happy with it.  I'm glad I went back & made the background lines thinner.  The width difference to the lines in the foreground add more interest, but even so, I'm not happy with the light stone colour in the background.  The foreground colours are too close in tonal value & create a heavy weight to the overall piece..  I also don't like the golden stripes I got a bit carried away with on the boat!!

However, when I change the proportions & shape of the completed piece, I like it MUCH better.  This is a  more interesting design to me now! What a great lesson about the importance of sample making & trying different formats out!

So, the only thing left to do...because I could see it was a design to lend itself to being a repeat pattern...was to try it out in the 'Layout' app.  Here are two outcomes.

In both of these, the stone background works brilliantly, as do all the additional gold stripes in the barge. So much potential from a design I could easily have ditched!  What fun!