SNAKES (WAP; Egypt #7)

I'm not a snake person!
Whether it's because I didn't grow up in a country where snakes thrive or because it's 'just me', but I find them visually unappealing, somewhat scary & their tendency towards slithering puts shivers up my spine. Ergh!

Except these snakes!
To me...these are beautiful, even if in snake form.
In a section of the Luxor Temple complex is an area covered with 50,000 blocks that all have parts of a sculptural relief or hieroglyph on them. All retrieved from elsewhere, from when they were recycled during medieval times into the homes & buildings of surrounding areas. These blocks are slowly & methodically being sorted into the time period they would have come from, scanned, numbered & with the help of computers being SLOOOOOOOOWLY reunited with their fellow parts!This is the ultimate jigsaw puzzle!

Representing Wadjet & Nekhbet, ancient goddesses of Upper & Lower Egypt & known as the Two Ladies, these reunited blocks are the inspiration for my first weekly art project of 2019.

I knew I wanted to reproduce them as accurately & completely as possible, at least in linear form. Naturally then, I needed to get my brain & hand working cohesively to identify the lines needed to represent those shapes, so out came the sketch book!
Whilst sketching & looking more closely at the photo I was working form, I also made note of shading & then noticed some sections of colour still apparent in the carved grooves of the stone.  That fragment of colour would guide me in my choice of colour palette and fabric selection.

Once happy with the snake design, I drew it to size on a piece of A4 & then, because I also wanted to include the aged & damaged blocks in my art piece, I ripped the paper into sections.

The plan was that each individual section was a seperate entity & although stacked with fabrics of the same colour value, not all the fabrics would be exactly the same. After ironing, stacking & sewing the design for each section, this is how they looked.

It was time to let the cutting back begin.  Here is how it went...

Each snake fragment was stitched onto a different type of calico backing. One was stained, one had been washed & was soft to work with, one was unwashed so was quite stiff and the last was a heaver weight calico, almost as thick as canvas. The white fabric was intended to add some highlights to the sculptural effect of the snakes.  At this stage the plan was to stitch each section onto another background, but I had to find a background that didn't detract from the snake motifs, that provided sufficient contrast & had a bit of texture.

It took a while, but eventually I found the perfect backing!
Each of the fabrics used had come from my scrap bins (except the final background), which added a challenge to the fun of bringing this project to life.  I'm very pleased with the outcome, even if, compositionally, it would have been more interesting to have my block breaks in a less central location! 
This has been an enjoyable way to get back into the weekly art project routine & I'm already looking forward to what Egyptian memory might inspire my creativity next week!