Gulenay's Faux-Sabretache
I picked up a couple of bundles of wool fat-quarters which had several lucsious colors in them; among all the rusts and greens and golds was a lone piece of purple wool. Normally, I don't have much to do with purple but the minute I saw this, I immediately thought of my friend Gulenay, who does have a great deal to do with purple.
She runs a Khazar persona, which is so difficult to document at the best of times that it's impossible to find very much out about them other than through archeaological artifacts. Some of these have nice motifs on them and it was from one that I chose to extrapoloate out on this particular project.
I happen to think that green goes along with purple just fine and I also wanted to celebrate her status as a Laurel so the back motif (not shown) is simply a laurel wreath, worked in the same style as the front leaves. The front emmulates the hooked sun disc motif that is so popular throughout the region that the Khazar shared with other cultures. The central motif is a modified swastika; there is still such a stigma attached to the swastika (and rightly so) that it's impossible to use it in anything without causing a fuss. But the Khazar and other cultures in the area used the swastika on a regular basis so I faked it, thereby staying true to something close to her persona without offending anyone, which, whether we like it or not, is a fairly important idea, considering the history of the 20th century.
I like the energy created by this central motif; the leaves tip counter-clockwise while the interior faux-stika runs clockwise, giving everything a balanced feel.
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The back of Gulenay's bag, showing the Laurel wreath done in the same style as the front motif. |