It immediately brought back childhood memories of Infants School, where we all had to learn to dance the intricate steps for the Maypole Dance. Most of the time we just concentrated on learning a polka dance step and making sure that the maypole ribbons were being braided into the correct pattern, so there was a lot of looking up!
Then there were the white dresses and coloured sashes (to match the ribbons we were holding). I remember performing the dance at the local showground in Murwillumbah, but I can't remember the occasion.It could have been to celebrate the then held Empire Day (24th May) or later in the year at the Tweed Banana Festival (August/September).
My DT piece has taken the movement of ribbons and flowers combined with the May Day tradition of a May Day Queen and so I created Rhoslyn.
Rhoslyn started off as a small wooden-mounted stamp, produced by a company which is no longer operating. I loved her face and the movement of her hair... just perfect for what I had in mind.
When I stamped the face in black on white, it was too stark, so I photographed the image on the wooden block, and faded it on the computer, to give a lovely porcelain skin tone. The photo was then enlarged to A4 size and printed onto card. This was cut out ready to be mounted onto smooshed A3 heavy watercolour paper. Ribbons were plaited and braided through her hair and then left to float freely. A crown of daisies was added.
All other flowers on the piece were handmade... diecut from smooshed watercolour paper, dampened and scrunched up. They were left to dry, before unscrunching and assembled.
The border has been made by writing out the words to an old English Maypole song (some of it had to be left out, so I could fit the words around the border). Some stamping has completed my piece.
We'd love to see what you come up with for this challenge, so pop on over to http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ and see what the rest of the team has been up to.
Thank you for stopping by. Comments left are always truly appreciated.
Cheers, Di
