BONDED by artist Jayne Humphreys of Lavinia’s Legacy

This piece of artwork is portraying the lifelong bond between a pair of male and female swans.

A mixed media OOAK Swan art doll - wire, french linen, silk, organdie, cotton lawn fabric (all secondhand sourced textiles), 15" H x 7.5" W (38cm x 19cm).

The body has been made using french linen bound around a wire frame. Cotton lawn fabric has been used around the neck & shoulders.  A french tea towel has been used for their attire with hand stitched details and vintage lace flower motif.  The beak & feet have been bound in black silk re-used from an old cutlery tray.  The legs have been painted in part with watercolours. Part of a pearl necklace embellishes the female Swans neck.

Hand stitching has been used throughout the whole process with second hand sourced textiles and embellishments.

The Swan has a loop hand stitched on the back for displaying.

An egg made from airdry clay with a typed label is stitched onto the back of the doll - and serves as the artist's signature.

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Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?