Sunday, November 28, 2010

Act II, continued!


Next up in my new series based on The Nutcracker ballet is Mother Ginger, the title character in the last divertissement, or independent dance, of Act II. Tchaikovsky based this character on the nursery rhyme Mother Gigogne, or the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and derived inspiration for the music from a French folk song.

Unlike the other entertainments provided at the banquet for Clara and the Nutcracker in the Land of Sweets, this one is a light-hearted frolic. The character of Mother Ginger, traditionally played by a man on stilts, lumbers onto the stage wearing an enormous hoop skirt and garish wig. At a musical cue, Mother opens the front of the skirt and an assortment of children--lucky members of the ballet company's school--scurry out and scamper around the stage.

When I worked up this design two years ago, the hardest part was including seven figures in a diamond-shaped ornament 4-1/2 inches high by 4-1/2 inches wide! Revisiting this canvas, I didn't change the composition, but I will need to make some decisions about color to make Mother Ginger and her brood come to life!

4 comments:

Possibilities, Etc. said...

You will do a great job of it - you always do!! I do enjoy watching the process and seeing these come to life.

Anonymous said...

You've got the design successfully put together, so I'm sure you'll find the colours will fall into place as soon as you start thinking about them!

Pierrette =^..^= said...

Very interesting design here and looking forward to seeing it all stitched.

This is a fun series :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Cool City Stitcher said...

Wow! I'm liking this more and more, and I'm looking forward to watching you stitch this one.