Quickie project

I'm going to work on a series of small embroideries based on milagros. These should be pretty quick to do.

Yesterday was very busy

No post yesterday, we had a gallery opening here at the Kimball-Jenkins school of art. I did a lot of grocery shopping and food prep, and ended up sleeping almost 14 hours. Unfortunately that means there's no significant progress on the stitching, so instead you get a short text post. More pictures tomorrow though.

Wednesday

So a very late start to the day today. I've proposed some classes to both the Kimball-Jenkins school of Art and the League of NH Craftsmen and then went home and crashed.

There is a call for fiber art entries in February, if I can find the link, I'll post it here. It looks interesting, it's based on the urban environment, which to me is a lot of fun.

I'm going to try and get some solid stitching done tonight, if my guts will let me (the C. Diff has flared up again, bacteria are such fun). See you tomorrow.
Happy stitching!

Laying in some heavy gold

Well, I'm at the point in this project where I'm couching down 8 to 10 strands of gold thread at a time. I'm using this to evoke mermaid's hair, so there will be strands of this throughout the piece. I'm using a thread that is very very close to the background fabric color, that way it will be as if the hair appears and disappears. I think it's a nice effect, and it casts a good shadow.

I apologize for the quality of my photos, I'm using my phone to photograph and write these posts It's easier for me to do this every day if I'm using tools that are readily at hand (like the bluetooth keyboard I use for typing this out, spiffy little thing)

I'm not entirely comfortable being outgoing on the internet yet, but I hope other folks can use the way I work as a jump off point for their own creative endeavors. We all see further by standing on the shoulders of giants, or even each other. It's a way to support the next generation of artists and craftspeople.

So, please, feel free to stand on my shoulders and see what you can make.

Happy stitching!

Monday

I've begun laying out the areas for more gold couching and the third panel of the vest. I first drew everything out with a large piece of sidewalk chalk (useful stuff!) and then quick basting stitches to outline so that way when I'm working I don't care that the chalk has rubbed off.
I've stapled rope to the edges of a stretching frame so that I can pin the work in place as I'm doing quick stitches. It's not taut enough for me to be comfortable doing elaborate embroidery, but it's enough for this kind of thing.
Happy Stitching!

Some more pearls

Well, I've added more pearls and another piece of beetle wing. And it's starting to look like a thing.
What has helped is that I've found the story for this piece. It's how I work all my art pieces. There needs to be a story, and mystery. I won't bore you all with the details of the story, since I'm the only one that needs to know it, but it has a revised title. "Ripples: or, Mermaids and the sailors that, briefly, loved them." That's enough of a story to carry over in to a couple of differentt pieces, a brooch, possibly a bracelet and hopefully a neckpiece.
Happy Stitching!