Strata XI, Geodes

Strata XI isn't like any of the others...except it is. What makes this a series is the fact that each is created on an adhesive, water soluble ground over which a clear piece of water soluble is placed. The other common denominator is the inspiration...the strata of the earth...like a cross section of ground found in geology and archeology textbooks. Okay, I haven't the slightest idea how geodes appear in nature...but this is the cross section of a whole bunch of them!

Rocks were always fascinating to my sisters and I while we were growing up. We used to try gluing together strange Christmas ornaments from the prettiest pebbles found in a creek flowing off the Untersberg mountain outside Salzburg, Austria. My sister Wanda had a rock tumbler and still collects "minerals". There was a valuable rock collection in our garage...something my parents received from an older man once-upon-a-time. Geodes, of course, were like special treasures...a amethyst surprise inside an otherwise ordinary looking round stone.

I created the piece using the headebo stitch...a stitch that has always reminded me of my Grandma Lenz and the pulls on her shades. All sorts of yarn was wound around paint containers, jars, and aerosol cans while I did the button-holing. Inside each, I put snips of sheer fabric and then free motion stitched. It was difficult...trying to navigate over the thicknesses. Next, I added French knots and the metallic threads by hand...and then I stitched by machine again. After I dissolved it, I didn't like the result. Something was wrong. A day later, a solution presented itself...my handy soldering iron. Once I melted away some of the sheers, there was a sense of a "void"...a "space"...just like a real geode. Now, I'm quite pleased with the piece. In fact, I'm thinking of doing another Strata, mostly in whites, with all sorts of gems scattered within the layers.