This has been a couple of very productive months on the creative front
Exploring Texture and Pattern
I continued my Exploring Texture and Pattern course, first completing 2.3 the exercise in mock herringbone. I could only find one piece of striped fabric in the house and the stripes were wider than I would have liked, but I made it work. The four examples were supposed to relate to each other, so I used similar shades of pink. The first example was one strand of embroidery cotton. The second was three strands of embroidery cotton and I played with spacing a bit. The third was Retors a Broder cotton in a five ply and I used the whole thread. In the fourth example, I repeated each of these three, playing with a second colour in between the threads of each. For the Retors a Broder, I used three strands of black floss. For the three strand column I used two rows of three strands of a pale yellow. And for the single strand column I used a single strand of a blue.
The next exercise, 2.4, was couching and this was fun. First I did a three ply tapestry yarn in a light yellow, winding it back and forth in tight rows. I couched it down with a single strand of yellow embroidery cotton. For the second example I used three strands of a warm brown embroidery floss running it in a grid, first horizontally and then vertically. I then couched it down with a crossstitch using two strands of matte gold embroidery floss where the vertical and horizontal grid met. This is called Jacobian Couching. My third example was back to a tapestry yarn, an orange colour this time, in circular pattern starting from the center. I couched it down with a complementary colour, blue, using two strands of embroidery cotton in a ray pattern from the center. The fourth example was a piece of Christmas ribbon I bought at the dollar store, laid in a wandering pattern, including one crossing, couched down with a single thread of green embroidery floss. I really enjoyed this exercise. and am thinking about how to use couching in my own designs.
I then moved on to the third module and it started with exercise 3.1 strip weaving. The warp and weft strips were sewn onto a base fabric. For my first sample I used a linen as the base fabric and used a pale patterned cotton, a purple cotton with a simple pattern, a green plaid pattern cotton, a green mottled pattern cotton and a teal mottled pattern cotton. I kept the pale strips to the top and the left, with the darker fabrics to the bottom and right.
For my second sample, I used a diaphanous sparkly pinkish fabric as the base and used cotton fabrics again for the strips. A pale one with a subtle pattern of clouds at the top, a paler pink floral, and three darker patterns with small florals, but all in analogous colours.
For exercise 3.2, we were to take these strip weaving pieces and stitch on them. For the first one, I used tissue paper to transfer a design of irises with backstitch on to the fabric and used watercolour pencil to add colour to the lighter fabric areas. I then did backstitch lettering on the right side and added random running stitch in brown at the bottom. I hemmed back most of the strips and backing except for the teal strip at the bottom. I quite like the result.
Kiwi Crafts
For Kiwi crafts, I did a stamped pattern on a stock canvas backpack. This involved cutting my own stamps from rubber blanks provided and using them and acrylic paint to stamp the backpack. Edges of the stamp sometimes picked up a bit of paint and show, but this is a pretty casual project, so that look doesn't bother me. I was anticipating summer outings and went with a beach theme, creating three stamps: a wave pattern, a starfish pattern, and a shell pattern. For the wave pattern, I used blue and white paint, trying to have white show at the top of the waves. For the shell pattern, I used a wine and a lavender paint, and for the starfish I used a mustardy yellow paint.
I am happy with the result.
EAC/ACB Seminar 2021
I also participated in two Embroidery Association of Canada Seminar classes and am partway through several original pieces for those.
Here are some teasers from my canvaswork design class with Carolyn Mitchell
This is an Alberta Rose design I'm working on.
And the design below is inspired by microscopic images of beetle feet.
Natalie Dupois Ode to the Palette
I took this course over six weeks, but mostly did colour theory and analysis, little stitching yet.
We had to choose a painting to analyze the colours of, and then use the colours in a stitched piece. I chose Elyse Dodge's piece Elfin Lake, as I loved the colours, the subject, and the feel of it.
Here is my colour breakdown in square tiles.
I decided to work with overdyed silk threads for this and here are the threads that I chose. I also looked at the threads in black and white to see the range of tones.
I will be using silver passing as the base for a couched open center circle using the proportions of the threads as used in the painting.
