but that’s not surprising as it’s a gray day, which almost always makes for challenging photography. And really, that’s not the point because this piece is intended to be felt as much as seen.

It began with this image of the labyrinth at Adobe and Pines in Taos …

which I never actually walked. Regretting, that lapse, I thought making a stitched version would be a good thing. Then I could “walk” the labyrinth over and over.

But as you can see, the photo was taken at an angle, so when I pricked the path with a needle (behind which you can see a much truer picture of the madder cloth) …

I realized the stitches would be too close together at the back of the path. So I tried drawing a crow’s eye view of the path freehand …

Good enough. I drew it again on cloth, letting my water erasable marker “walk” the path.

And then “walked” it yet again in tiny backstitches, worked in #8 perle cotton. But when I washed out the marker, a shadow remained …

It was the logwood linen backing discharging into the madder …

particularly along the seam…

and I’m absolutely okay with that. In fact, I may continue to wet and dry the piece in hopes of encouraging more discharge, after first detaching it from the Metta  stitching …

And here I pause to give belated thanks to Connie Akers, my down-the-street neighbor with whom I recently reconnected. It was Connie who gifted me with the madder and logwood dyed pieces of linen. She is one of a trio of natural dyers who work under the name Eco & Indigo Fiber Arts …

They are currently working some wonderful magic and videotaping their results, which you can see for yourself if you have Facebook