Mandala CXI, Steinway Piano Key Mandala

(Above:  Found Object Mandala CXI, The Steinway Piano Keys.  Hung as a square: 52 1/2" x 52 1/2"; hung as a diamond: 74 3/4" x 74 3/4".  All 88 piano keys from an old, broken, upright Steinway hand-stitched to a section of a vintage, hooked rug.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Late last month I blogged about the old, broken upright Steinway that I received from Carolina Steinway in Charlotte, North Carolina.  (Read it HERE.)  At first, I couldn't believe that I would be given this musical instrument.  Seriously ... it was a STEINWAY.  Like many others, I thought that a Steinway was like a Stradivarius violin, something that could last "forever" ... or at least for centuries.  Sadly, that's just not true. Once the sound board is cracked/broken, needed repairs cost considerably more than a new piano.  So ... I got a Steinway and had a wonderful time dismantling it.  Two Found Object Mandalas were stitched and offered to the Steinway dealership. I'm very pleased and totally honored that both were purchased.  Yet, I hadn't done anything with the piano keys!

(Above:  Detail of Mandala CXI, The Steinway Piano Keys.)

Believe it or not, this Steinway was so old that the white keys are real ivory.  I was told that they could be bleached but that just didn't seem like the right approach. A bright white, new-looking key just doesn't suit my personal aesthetics, this series, or the even the rest of the wooden key.  Also, I liked the very slight discoloring. Real ivory does this over time.  Some of the keys show organic patterns called Schreger lines.  This is a sign that the material came from an elephant's tusk, real ivory.  I really didn't want to bleach this away.

(Above:  The vintage hooked rug used as for the foundation of this piece.)

Another reason against bleaching the white keys was my choice for a foundation layer.  I didn't want to use an old quilt.  I wanted something stiffer, less flexible, and very sturdy but also nice and flat.  Well ... I had just the thing!  I got this old hooked rug last summer while at Bill Mishoe's auction.  No one wanted it.  I gave the minimum six-dollar bid, a mercy bid. I understood the lack of interest.  This rug had seen better days.  There were several holes and obvious signs of repair ... but I couldn't resist it.  Still I wasn't sure if it were the perfect surface for the Steinway keys.

(Above:  Laying out the Steinway keys.)

I am blessed with a very good ability to visualize size, color, shape, and all sorts of other artistic things, but eighty-eight keys on this vintage hooked rug was questionable.  There was only one way to truly "see" how it might come together.  I lay out the keys in their correct order ... right on the floor ... near the rug ... to see if a mandala circle would even fit on the rug ...

... and was about to move sections of the keys to the rug ... when Ernie the Cat let me know that he absolutely approved of this idea.  The size was perfect too.  I didn't even have to put the keys on the rug.  I could see the finished piece at this stage.  Steve built a stretcher bar.  A heavy-duty staple gun attached the rug to it.  I thought about how I would stitch this piece and then drilled four, well-placed holes in all eighty-eight keys.  Next, everything went upstairs for the next phase.

(Above:  The eighty-eight keys on top of the vintage rug foundation.)

The photo above shows how my living room has looked over the past few weeks.  Two sets of workhorses have been in the living room for over a year now.  Large Found Object Mandalas are stitched there.  This one, however, was the biggest.  The piano keys were laid out in proper order.

(Above:  Laying out the piano keys around a large pan's glass lid.)

It took about an hour to arrange the keys around a center circle.  I knew I was making the right choices because one of our glass pan's lid was the absolutely perfect size to hold the center circle!  Although I rarely use any glue on my Found Object Mandalas, it was necessary to put a dab of hot glue under each key ... just to hold it temporarily in place for the hours of hand stitching.

This was my view of the work in progress.  On the left side of the photo, there are a few brown lines of thread ... just beyond where the black and white parts of the keys end and the wood shows.  There's one stitch coming up from the back, on each side of each key, and going down through the drilled hole.  That's 176 stitches around the middle of the keys.  

The same thing was done for the holes drilled on both sides of the "nail thing" on the end of the keys.  There is also a stitch at the end of every key, right near the base.  For this, I used a really great thread.  It is thin but SO STRONG!  If I were to attempt to break it with my bare hands, I would end up bleeding ... and without a broken thread.

(Above:  The strong thread!0

I got an enormous cone of this thread from YLI in Rock Hill, South Carolina.  I don't really know what it is ... except that it is great!  For the most part, I stitched using a very large chenille needle, this thread doubled, and a pair of bent chain needle nose pliers.  It was hard work but worth every stitch!

(Above:  The reverse side of Found Object Mandala CXI.)

My stitching wasn't finished when all eighty-eight keys were attached.  The weight of these pieces has to be distributed.  It just can't be framed while stapled to a stretcher bar.  First, the piece was removed from the stretcher bar.  A piece of foam-centered board was glued to the front of the stretcher bar.  Then the piece was carefully stapled around the perimeter ... every half inch.  It went back to the workhorses in the living room.  It took time but more stitching was done ... straight through the foam-centered board, the rug, and through the existing hole/slot in each key.  More stitches were also plied ... distributing the weight of the piece evenly over the surface.

To hide the staples along the edge, I used a gold liner.  The outer dimension of the liner matches the outer dimension of the stretcher bar ... thus ... it sits on top of the staples.  Then, a large, deep antique styled frame went around the liner.  Of course, I forget one, important thing.  I forgot to add my name!  So ... in the photo above, I'm sitting on the floor stitching through the foam-centered board and rug ...

 ... adding my name and the date.  I did this in two orientations because this piece can actually hang as a diamond.  I am really happy with this piece!