Blue Canvaswork: Water

This little canvaswork piece has really been a joy to stitch. Rather than having a specific idea of what it should look like when I'm finished, I am discovering how it will look when I use a particular thread and a particular stitch! The thing I like most about canvaswork is how easy it is to blend colors and create texture.Towards the bottom of the design I decided to add some "plants'. It will be up to the viewer if to decide if these are underwater plants or beside the water plants - they could be either! I used a rayon thread that's more like a ribbon than a thread. It's actually a tube of thread that's flattened out and is variegated in blues and greens. The stitch is leaf stitch and I've varied the length and placement of the stitches to create different shaped plants.All around the 'plants' I'm stitching water using different shades of blue and turquoise. You can see that I put in stitches of the different colors scattered all around the area. I work until the end of the length of thread and then change shades and repeat the same process. This way the effect really is random and looks lovely.As I stitch towards the top right of the area, the shades of blue will become lighter. In a few places the particular effect of this random stitching has created what I think looks like bubbles! I just love playing around with these threads and stitches on canvas - it's so much fun! I think I'll call this particular piece "Water". I had plans to do 4 different colors of the same wave-like design.There is a song called "Earth, Air, Fire, Water" sung by an all women's choir called Libana. The lyrics are "The earth, the air, the fire, the water, return return return return." It's based on - or inspired by - a Native American song.I would love to have a series of four of these pieces, each representing one of the ancient elements. What do you think?