Greek Bronze Age Horse Embroidery

I have always loved the copies of the  Greek Bronze Age horses and a few years ago I bought one for myself as a memento.

The horse was very important to the Ancient Greeks showing wealth,  status, military prowess and adherence to the Gods.
 I just love them because of their shape, colour and pattern.
 I dyed some material in greeny-blue and copper colours and then printed over the top using a natural sponge with metallic bronze and copper.I used these pieces as the background and a piece of shiny fabric representing the tin which when combined with copper creates bronze.

Backgrounds stitched together and the horse appliqued.

I used the patterns on the horses to make patterns down the left hand side and influence the embroidery stitches I used.

Rows of herringbone were added to improve texture

 I made some horse stamps and block printed "ghost horses" with bleach.

 Further patterns were made with copper shim and stitch. Verdigris pieces were sewn into the left hand seam and arrows into the right hand curved seam.

 The background was machine stitched to bring the whole piece together.

Finally when the piece was bound,  the corners were decorated with stitch and beads.