http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/blog/2016/09/12/museum-of-fine-arts-overnight-party/
What a fantastic idea, for any arts organization. I could see something like this in a library, or music school, too.
I wonder if that would be something that could work with embroiderers.
working on the wall hanging.
Good morning folks. It's a beautiful day outside, and this piece is coming along. It's a combination of split Stitch, worked in DMC floss in 3 colors, And Sulky gold thread work in backstitch.
inspiration!
I saw this at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. For whatever reason I was enthralled.
the threads I'm using
the inverted colors
It's nice having a tool that will automatically generate complementary colors.
It's even nicer knowing I can just go to my Wall O'Thread and just grab it.
Check out this article, that explains a slightly different color theory, that I'm using for this project.
And now, back to stitching
http://blog.adsfabrix.co.uk/100-stitches-used-in-embroidery/
Woot!
So I've fused the fabric to a featherweight interfacing. It'll give some body to the fabric, and it'll help me to keep my tension even. Always a bonus to interfacing.
The eco-dyed fabric looks good after rinsing. This should be fun to embroider.
On to the stitching!
MAD SCIENCE!!!
So I'm starting two new pieces. In the picture above, I have cotton muslin that I saturated with vinegar. On top I laid rusted steel washers. If you look up 'eco-dying' you'll find all sorts of examples of this. When it's all dry, I'll toss the washers back into their bucket and I'll heat set the resulting dye. After that I'll give it a good rinse in alkalune water.(water with a good amount of baking soda dissolved in it) then I'll start embroidering it.
Melbourne, Australia August 2014.
this is a star map showing what you'd see if you were standing in Melbourne and facing East, at night. This will be worked into a garment by the marvelous Ann Lee.
There'll be more progress pics.
http://www.kimballjenkins.com/paint-the-town/
This piece is up for auction at the Kimball-Jenkins annual fundraiser. It's one of the few pieces that I've stretched and mounted. It's also one of the few pieces, I've done' that has no pearls.
Well, I've visited with Chris and Donna at Bead It, downtown. They agree with me that this is terrible inspiration, and I should start work immediately.
There will be updates and pictures.
https://open.spotify.com/user/12184335223/playlist/0RWlEI4N2TnvYHFeQgoVJJ
I am loving KarenSouza's voices
Go check out Emma Mattson's work. This is wonderful!
I love finding new artists doing great stuff with embroidery. It's just so inspiring to see what other people do with the same tools that I use. Emma Mattson is creating marvelous organic forms with stitches like french knots, and what looks like turkey stitch. I think that she's also attaching actual dried moss, which is something I'd never considered.
It's marvelous to see the language of embroidery grow and expand.
Time to see what poetry I can write with my needle today.
Sara is doing an amazing job with felt, both sculptural and more framed. I'm seriously stunned by her work. In a moment, I'll post a picture of one of her pieces, and explain why I love it so much. But first go check out her Facebook page. I'll wait....
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Then go check out her work on Behance (an artists' portfolio site.), there are some magnificent pictures there.
This is gobsmackingly detailed. Absolutely magnificent.
I adore this little beastie. He's fully detailed (a little NSFW, but it's an armadillo) The fine lines on his scales are little tufts of wool that she has needle felted in place. I thought they were wool blanket stitch that she needle felted. Nope. She did it the harder, more spectacular way.
This beastie even has some heft to him.
I simply adore her work. So let's all wish her a Happy Birthday!
Back to setting up for fair!
There's a wonky section on the right hand side of the piece. But that will get straightened out when everything is stitched together.
I, and you, can find inspiration anywhere. Sometimes it's good to step back, look at an inspirational object, and try and figure out why it's inspirational.
I bumped into this artist's work via Pinterest, and there's so much there that's simply wonderful. This one though, jumped out and grabbed my attention. So breaking it down.
I'll do other posts like this one and I'll incorporate how I work that inspiration into my work with the needle.
Back to the stitching!
I get asked if I listen to music while I'm working, or if I prefer silence. Those that ask that don't know me. In my studio I always have music on, and I'm usually singing along with it. It gives me a great rhythm to work to and I can always find something that suits my mood, or helps me to change it.
I use Spotify for most of my music needs. I love the ability to make my own mixes, to be my own DJ.
https://open.spotify.com/user/12184335223/playlist/4aR6pWK5F7lh31y6cMonGQ This has been my go-to mix for a while now. I do add new things to it, and remove things that don't help with the stitching. I also adore Janelle Monae and Grimes . I have other good mixes, that I'll share in other posts. Or check out my profile and see what you like over there.
I use Pandora for finding new music, they're spectacular at giving me stuff that's new, that appeals to the same tastes as my older stuff. I try not to upvote or downvote too much. When I do that everything seems to drift to Moby. (I do really like Moby. It's disconcerting, though, when a station that starts with Peter Murphy and Sisters of Mercy starts playing "Southside" It just doesn't fit, somehow)
When I figure this blogging thing better, I'll put up a Spotify widget with what I'm currently listening to.
It's horrible to realize that you don't have pictures of all your work. There's at least 10 brooches out in the world that I have no photographs of. Having these pictures would help me to understand where Ive come from as an artist, and to see what ideas I keep working on. (Some styles/stitches/combinations are worth exploring in depth)
So I'm going to post a lot of links today, to great resources for taking great pictures and making it easier and less stressful.
How and why to use a tripod. When photographing my pieces I ALWAYS use my tripod. My hands tremor too much, even with medication, to capture a clear image. And cleaning up the image in GIMP isn't as easy for my brain as I'd like. I also like that my adjustable tripod can be used to hold my cell phone if I'm doing a Facebook video, or anything that requires me to look at the cell phone screen (such as looking at the inspiration pictures while I'm working) The tripod lets me adjust settings on my old point and shoot digital camera, without screwing up the setup or arrangements. (more on this later)
Etsy has some good tutorials and tips. Here's one I'm not fond of the display set up in this tutorial but there are some great tips in it. The advice about natural light is wonderful. Some of my earliest pictures were taken just at dawn, when the light illuminated a specific table. It was very lovely, but, I don't feel I have the time to wait for a day that isn't cloud-covered, or otherwise unsatisfactory, to take my pictures.
If I have to, I use a photography box. It's a plain cardboard box, about 12"x12" I've covered the inside with white copier paper (it's cheap) On the sides of the box I've cut out squares, about 6x6 (I'd photograph the box, but I'm not sure where I put it, and I'm not really in the mood to make another. I may have loaned it out) So I set it up with the opening to the front and that's where the camera is setting up, I put at least one light to the side of the box, so its light comes in filtered, and reflecting off the other white pieces of paper. That's usually sufficient, and I then take a LOT of pictures of the object, changing the settings on my camera, like color, shutter speed, light adaptations, things like that. (I have NO earthly idea what these settings do, except that the photos turn out faintly different) I also always use the timer on the camera, 10 seconds, that way any residual shaking from my hands fades away.
I always use a white bacground now, since it's easier to extract the image, in photoshop, for advertising and stuff.
After all the pictures are taken I load them on to my computer and crop them all to squares (that's my prefered shape for pictures, I think it looks cleaner and special). After that I start going through them, two by two. And I ask myself "Is A better than B" and toss the one that isn't better. It's like being at the optometrist. At the end of the exercize I usually have 2 or three good pictures and I'm happy.
Do check out the Etsy boards, they've got great tips for photographing your work, no matter what it is.
(if you're curious about one of the tags "Aaron's Birthday", Aaron is my friend and a wonderful photographer, and is doing amazing stuff in the Boston area. Because it's his birthday, I wrote a post about one way I use photography)
Living With Craft is one of my favorite things about the Annual Craftsmens' Fair. I get to see, and be inspired by, the artists that work on a larger scale. The furniture makers, rug makers, wood carvers etc. really shine in the spaces that are made for them.
Each vignette has so much to see and explore.
Check out the chair on the right! (Picture from the League of NH Craftsmen)
I'll be posting more pictures during the day as we get the spaces set up.
for the 26th. Add pictures of set up.
This will be on display, and for sale at this year's Craftwear, at the League fair!
I'm helping with the setup this year at the Fair. It's a new thing for me. I've wanted to be able to do this for a few years now, but my anxiety/agoraphobia issues have been too much for me. This year, I'm taking extra medication and sleeping about 12 hours a night, to recover, but, I'm doing it! I expect that I'll be fried for most of August afterwards, but it's worth it.
One of the values I chose to live by is "We're all in this together" For me that means that I should do what I can, with what I have for those people and groups that I care about. This means I've donated a lot of my work for fundraising. This year I decided to do more concrete actions to help my groups. So I'm giving my time.
I'll be adding pictures to this post through the day. It should be fun!
There are so many links between protests and fabric, it's too big of a topic to cover. But a significant one was the development of the American flag, where we took the colors of our parent's (England) flag, and made them distinctly our own
I like many of the more modern expressions of political thought in fabrics and fibers. Many of the artists are using innovative techniques, and interesting materials. For example "The Money Dress" is a glorious experiment with using currency as fabric, and as commentary.
Susan Stockwell is an amazing British artist that uses technology, ecology and politics in her works while also incorporating recycled computer parts and other everyday materials. Here we have "The Money Dress" which she designed and was made with paper money from all over the world. These particular style of dresses were inspired by the very ones worn by british Female Explorers in the 1870's....from Shawn Lloyd's blog
"Line of Fire" by Adrienne Sloane is magnificent commentary on our current culture of gun violence. I suspect that she's trying to say a few things in the work, but I'm unable to find any source besides Pinterest (which is, usually, more useful than this)
"Line of fire" by Adrienne Sloane (my attempts to find a useful link to the artist have failed.)
Other artists have used text to convey their intentions, others have used more graphic imagery. I love the use of a traditional technique to convey modern concerns, that make us contemplate those concerns in a new way.
The Democratic National Convention is starting this evening. It makes me wonder what inspiration for work will I find in it.
The difference between fashion and style comes with experience.
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