I have been working on a piece for the "Womens Work" show that I mentioned earlier this year.

The images I have been given for my inspiration is of Empress Theodora, who ruled with Emperor Justinian, in 500 BC, during the Byzantine era.

This is the only image of her, and it is a mosaic situated in Ravenna:

I have been working my design first with pastels on watercolour paper:

...and then loosely weaving strips of torn fabrics together and quilting this background to give me a mosaic efffect:

I have then been painting back into my design with textile paints/shiva sticks/oil pastels to give my piece an antiqued look.

Below is the sample piece I created to audition the paint techniques:

Gosh, so many choices for colour and texture, which one do I choose?

And the back is a blank canvas to do another colour scheme altogether:

I will post more images once I make some decisions about the front and back!

-Anni