Lasers and cycles - story of a commission

It all began in January. 

A lovely lady sent me an email asking if I ever did commissions. She explained that her partner, who had bought several of my pieces at last year's Hampshire Open Studios, really liked my work and had a 'big' birthday approaching and that she would like to commission a new work from me. Would I do a special piece for him?

Now this was a first for me, and in truth I did hesitate - but it was only for a moment. Yes, I said, of course. I would be delighted. 

So she sent me the brief. 

• His favourite colours were yellow and blue
• He loves sailing his laser dinghy
• He loves riding his bike - the Colnago C60

Could I work with that? 

Yes, I said, I could - and then the muse left me! 

I don't know if it was the pressure or the colours and subject matter ( well out of my comfort zone) but I found it a real struggle to envisage this piece.

But then, on holiday in Denmark, I saw a laser dinghy in the sea just near 'that Bridge', and it all began to come together. 

So first of all I played with a simple print block made from foam sheet. 

I liked the results - but .....

Meanwhile I auditioned background papers. 

Coloured tissue above, stock yellow paper below.

I also went to the Laser dinghy website to look at the specification of the boat. I love the shape of the sail.

I also think the hull is very elegant, and of course you cannot see this below the waterline. 

More printing experiments, this time on tissue, but now I wasn't so sure about this print block or quite where it was going.

Meanwhile, I had made a decision on the tissue paper and began to add more detail to the background. Remember the bicycle was also in the specification, so I used circles referencing the bike wheels to add texture to the background paper. 

At this point a new idea struck. I would use the shape of the silhouette of the laser. So I cut out a few shapes. Some were from painted papers and some from an A-Z of Gosport, the home of the customer. 

Now, I really liked where this was going. But it still needed more depth. 

I rummaged through the painted papers stash. 

These looked promising.

Placing and experimenting. 

I'd got the laser all worked out, but how could I fit that bike in? 

Meanwhile, more experimentation and beginning to incorporate a few place names. ('The Solent' for example).

Confident enough to stick them down. 

And a brainwave with the bike! Tiny ribbons of coloured tissue. You have to look really hard, it doesn't detract from the design but I think it really works, tucked in there. 

Ready for stitch!

Stitched! (below).

It is fully stitched but I used a variegated thread, blue running to yellow. I stitched around the boat profiles but I did stitch over the three background blocks to tie them in. 

At this point I left well alone for a couple of days, just to let everything settle down. 

And then added some additional blue hand colouring . 

It still needed a little extra so back to the stash. 

Free motion stitched ribbon using organza and dissolvable film. I'm introducing another colour here, a little bit of pink, so again this was not a rushed decision but one that needed to be carefully considered.

The back of the piece for the quilters among you. Nifty stitching, don't you think? 

And the final piece, framed and ready to give.

One happy customer and one very happy recipient. 

Really pleased with this. It was a tough one but when I got going it came together really well.