This was a small, gracefully corseted gourd (forgive me not being familiar
enough with all the types to tell you what sort it is)...and Cookie has cut
it just about the breast line, and polished it to an amazingly high sheen.
Cookie cut it in an undulation, and then coiled in very sweet, tiny coils, with fine pine needles that look like brown grass. She bound it with black waxed linen, taking 2 stitches in each hole for only the first row, making tiny arrows at the bottom of each row of perfect stitches.
After following the undulation
of the gourd for quite a few rows, come the shoulders and looped wrapped
coils in and out...what a maze it is to follow! I do not know how she could
possibly plan this, or support these lovely, fragile-looking bands.
But the
delicacy of these coils is misleading - they combine to form an incredibly
hefty and tight piece. The last free coil swoops down to the waist, and
comes back up to make a visual circle - striking. There are dangling bead
accents in black and vivid green at one point on the outside, and on the
inside.
The effect is almost that of a curvaceous woman with multiple necklaces, and
a dangling bracelet, clasping her hands at her waist. I adore it.
Actually, I have made her lie down for
awhile, but it feels like she is not relaxing that way. She is an upright
woman.
