UN BON GROS DODO

 

I wasn’t totally sure if the young man on the checkout in Tesco’s had been trained to ask me what I had planned for the rest of my day, or if he was genuinely interested to know. Since he had enquired so politely I felt I could at least inform him of what I would be doing on my return home.

“I’ll be stitching a Dodo”, I said.

He looked puzzled, so I added “You did ask”. As I loaded my purchases into my bag I endeavoured to expand a little on what was entailed in my particular complex form of embroidery, but it only seem to add to his confusion. I smiled politely behind my face mask and mumbled my thanks before heading off to the bus station and home. I had started the embroidery the previous day and was keen now to see how my idea for stitching feathers rather than fur would turn out.

 I had found an old engraving of a dodo in the 1889 edition of Chambers illustrated encyclopaedias and had done more research on line to arrive at a satisfactory image. I read early description of this comical and most cumbersome of birds in Oliver Goldsmith’s History of the earth and animated nature as being the most unwieldy and inactive of all nature. Everything about the dodo seem to contradict all the attributes that man had assigned to bird life.  Its body is massive, almost round, and covered in grey feathers. It is only just supported on two short thick legs, like pillars, while its head and neck rise from it in a manner truly grotesque.  Native of Mauritius, the French called it the nauseous bird, not only because of its appearance but its bad taste of flesh. Perhaps they simply hadn’t discovered the correct way to cook it for succeeding visitors reported its flesh to be good and wholesome eating. It was said that three or four dodos were enough to dine a hundred men. It is thought that it became extinct around 1680. There were however some interesting observations made before this took place. One was that it was not possible to domesticate them as during captivity they shed tears and eventually died. The nest of the dodo was made from a heap of palm leaves and only a single egg was laid. Each bird took it in turns to sit during an incubation period of seven weeks as well as protecting the chick when born. Any other dodo coming within 200 yards was chased away. The males would only chase away other males and female would only chase females.  In the gizzard of all birds a stone was found the size of a hen’s egg and it was concluded that they were born with this stone as even young birds had it. They also discovered that these stones made extremely good knife sharpeners and were used in preference to any other.

The images I found were many, ranging from the cartoon character cuddly toys to all possible forms of exaggeration. Using a compilation of the most realistic images along with various descriptions dating from the late 17^th century I produced a drawing, which although remaining comical also does bare some resemblance to an actual dodo. Having transferred this onto white cotton fabric I began stitching, firstly with the tail, then moving on to the separate wing and drumstick leg, which would be attached to the main bird and padded out before then cutting out the entire embroidered bird. To create a feathered appearance I used a rough fishbone stitch that I would normally use for leaves. It seemed to work well, particularly when completed and padded out on the linen support canvas. The rough background drawing was then transfer to the canvas, and although this is never the definitive image it does serve as a guide for the embroidery that will constitute several tens of thousands of stiches. 

When tackling this sort of work I like to concentrate on a small area and finish it, rather than, say concentrating on one colour as one might when stitching a cross stitch kit. The image remained relatively fluid and would also have some raised areas, which were again stitched separately on an embroidery hoop. I wanted to keep most of the background as flat as possible to emphasize the rotundness of the dodo, but would allow some raised work in the foreground. As usual I start stitching at the top with the sky and trees. The sky was mostly in long-stitch, while the clouds and tree foliage were all in half French knots in order to keep the detail small enough to convey depth. This knot is very similar to a full French knot but goes only once around the needle before completion to produce a much smaller knotted stitch. I restricted the trees to three distinct but unknown species, which would leave me with plenty of opportunity to incorporate different varieties of green wools when it came to the foreground. It is a question of contrasting tones as well as colours which eventually gives depth. By the time I reached the half way stage I had passed from sky through the distant hills and forest to the middle foreground. In order again to give depth I introduced some water behind the bird, much as I had done with the Ocelot, separating it from the forested area. Once complete the needlework was stretched and box framed before setting it within the old gilt frame. I had right from the start decided to frame the dodo using one of my old recuperated gilt picture frames. Although in a somewhat decrepit state it was of good depth and a similar size to the French gilt framed needlework it would replace that hung above the headboard of the half tester bed. Any French toddler would immediately understand why I intended to hang a stumpwork embroidery of a dodo above the head of the sleeper. In French dodo translates as dodo, but also beddy-byes, un bon gros dodo- a nice long sleep.