Eclipse
The ideas for this piece first began to accumulate in my mind during 2022. I had woven my wasp (Paper) and hoverfly (Lagoon) wings and was continuing to consider the beauty and importance of insects that people often fear or loathe. As a member of the Butterfly Conservation, I had attended an online event which focused on information from recent research carried out on moths and the impact that both climate and street lighting were having on populations, Butterfly Conservation had just launched their Moths Matter campaign, so my mind was very much involved in questioning and processing information.
Personally, I love moths and finding them and their caterpillars in my garden. They often go unnoticed until you train your eye to spot them but every now and then one visits the garden asking to be seen like the Poplar Hawk moth, Cinnabar moth, and the Jersey Tiger moth.
It was a small, beautiful moth who visited my greenhouse that sparked the final idea for this piece and helped me create my Eclipse, this being a Small Magpie moth. I don’t know if it was a male or female moth, but I refer to it as her. She was quietly sitting on the greenhouse glass, I snapped a photo of her with my phone, not the best photo but one I kept revisiting as I ticked over considerations.
- A Magpie – folklore tells us magpies collect trinkets and jewellery
- Moths often blend into their surroundings going unnoticed until they fly
- Moths get a bad reputation due to their nocturnal or crepuscular habits
- Butterflies are loved
- What if my Magpie moth collected the colours and patterns of the garden butterflies – would we then love moths just as much as butterflies?
By early summer of 2023 I had formed the thinking behind the piece and started working on a design. I decided to create a stencil from the photo of the small magpie moth as this wasn’t symmetrical and gave a nod to the distortion the brain has when a moth is flapping around or towards you in the dark. I also wanted a group of moths to form an eclipse (the collective name given to a group of moths) with the small magpie centre, her collection around her. Each moth would be woven to the same stencil each with its own butterfly patterns.
My garden is often full of butterflies and as it was now late July I was sitting watching them daily for the Butterfly Conservation Big Butterfly Count, deciding which eight garden butterflies I was including was easy it was eight of the most common in the garden – Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Blue, Holly Blue, Marble White, Orange Tip, Comma and Gatekeeper.
Yes, ok, Large and Small White butterflies were in higher numbers than most of these, but they generally get as bad a reputation as moths do so I didn’t feel my Moth would want it in her collection.
Now all I had to do was weave. My magpie was the first moth to be woven followed by her collection, each moth following the same stencil but each cartoon (the pattern/design followed by a tapestry weaver) was different to include the patterns of a different butterfly referencing photos I had taken of my garden butterflies. Not all the moths have the patterns and colours of a butterfly’s open wings, two took the pattern from the closed wings, these being the Brimstone and the Gatekeeper, non are symmetrical nor are they meant to be, each a slight distortion and my own interpretation of the colours and patterns but hopefully each is recognisable.
Once complete I bought entomology pins to display my moths, each carefully placed around my Magpie as she surrounded herself with camouflage, recognised beauty and acceptance. My Small Magpie Moth isn’t held with pins, she sits freely among her collection.
Eclipse took its first flight during my solo exhibition Quietly Connected in Autumn 2023.
Each moth is woven as an individual shaped tapestry using good quality waste wool and cotton fibres.
Watch me weaving Eclipse Moths on my YouTube Channel – Weaving Gatekeeper
Find facts and information about Moths by visiting the Butterfly Conservation website Moths Matter
Eclipse will be exhibited in the Letchworth Open at the Broadway Gallery 18th September – 9th November
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