Victorian Couple Update 01 May 2017

See how my posts are now much more pragmatic.  

I made some good progress yesterday, as soon as the blister on my index finger quietened down a bit.

As you can see from this image, the windows are in, the pelmet has been selected and the pattern for the drapes have been swatched up.  Feeling somewhat relieved that the stage is now being set for this afternoon tete a tete in circa 1840, I decided to wade into filling in the piano forte.  

The piano is actually one of the main reasons I selected this image in the first place.  To cut a long story short, I did some experiments with Stem Stitch filling as applied to various textures and the upshot was I realised it lends itself to woodgrain incredibly well.  More later, have to dash...

More Progress on the Victorian Couple

As you can see, I had massive problems to contend with.  Namely tone, quality of line for the faces and those dear windows...

I think I re-did the young fella's face about 5 times.  In the end I chose Gutterman's fine sewing thread and used a combination of straight stitches and couching.  I was still not sure about his face last night, but when I examined it this morning, I was surprised at my own success, because faces are hard and faces this small are really hard - one wrong move and you create the wrong expression, the wrong age, the wrong peek into his soul...

Books about portraiture are very helpful when it comes to working out how to do faces, because at each stage of our lives our facial structure changes.  One tiny mistake can mean disaster and I find when that happens, I like to start again.  Also with this chappie, notice his mouth is open and this is a very important part of this image, he's speaking to her and she's looking up and paying him attention, not the piano for that moment...

The whole time I was doing the face, I kept remembering the first time I saw this young man's face, and the funny thing was, it was his younger face that came through the image as I sewed it.  How sweet...

So that's sorted, now onto other things...

Then the windows gave me the most incredible amount of trouble.  I realised I needed the windows because the faces were being left white and they looked so white, I wanted to balance them out.?

Well of course, these dear windows start to steal the show and then need the most almighty push back.

I thought the windows were really going to tip the balance of the whole thing at one panic-stricken point, so that's when I decided to leave them alone, while I pegged down the young lady's face.  That took 3 attempts.  More so because I forgot I was using Guttenberg for the faces and plunged into using embroidery floss which was far too dark..

Her face still looks very dark but not compared to his and certainly not after I give her hair a lot of attention.  Hair is such fun to do!

I'm pleased with her face, or rather that its so understated by comparison to the young man's.  This is the correct note I wanted to strike e.g. he's visiting her, he has something to say and she is serene in contrast.  (As they drummed into me in art school all those years ago 'less is more'...)

Here's the image with the flash turned on.

This is a worthwhile endeavour in that it highlights the tonal problems of the piece.  Her dress is far too close in tone to the sky because I spent a long time evaluating sky tonal values while her dress was covered up.  But more than that, I did want her dress to remind him of the sky and I want his hair to remind her of wood....you'll see why in the end.  Its all about linking themes...

I was aiming for that association originally, but now I need to separate those ideas somewhat.  I'm still thinking about that and hope that by the time I've finished with the curtains, wooden patina of the piano and the decorative elements of her dress, then the whole thing will be OK.

But that's a long way off and a lot of work to do before I can be sure?  To assist me, I've looked at the image with all the swatches attached and viewed it from several distances, and even upside down.  So now I forge ahead...

In so doing however, I realised the piece has gone beyond the margins of the mount that I've lined up for it?  So now I'm thinking about some kind of border to encapsulate the whole thing and most importantly to hold in the bits I'll need to chop off and bring in line with the new dimensions I have to sort out.  

I have to rest a bit today though, as I noticed my index finger has a small blister.  I was never one to get along with a thimble...

cya...

Two Posts in One Week - Whatever next?

Well, updates dont come much shorter than this.  Here's what I'm up to.

I was so pleased I managed to get the windows in, but alas, I must have been really tired by the time I tackled the gloss painting of the mouldings...to be sure, that section has to be re-done.

Hello Everyone - I'm Back!

Well, its certainly been a long time and yes, I’m back.  

Pleased to say I’m well again and feel quite energetic once more (TG and all the angels…oh, and my own brains!) 

Not that I ever forgot y’all, and I certainly never left off what I was studying in needlework.  The thread really did continue and my exploration was always ticking away, always...

So, what I’ve decided to do this time round is not write really looooooooooong posts that drain every ounce of strength from my pre-frontal cortex, but instead make the needlework drive the posts, rather than the other way round…? 

Without trying to sound  immodest, you understand, I like to think I’ve made considerable personal progress, albeit intellectually, as regards certain mechanical problems in my needlework that keep popping up and were driving me personally to utter distraction….

Because of that, I knew I had to ‘go back to the drawing board’, trouble was I went back further and further and ended up, of all places, in the middle of the Cretaceous period? – I kid you not!  

Strange connection you might say, not really, because at the same time I was also re-designing my garden!

Ye old doodle cloth has been my trusty companion throughout.  Sorry no pictures of that bedraggled comfort blanket...haha. 

But you know, its funny how you start on a very private hunch that seems awfully like fretting, that can take you through quite a few months and yet at the end of the journey, eventually, you find you actually discovered something for yourself…So all that time spent away was not in vain.

I plan to return to all my previous projects and sort them out and this Victorian image is the one I decided to start with.

‘Motivation has to depend on emotion, if there isn’t emotion driving motivation, then it ain’t gonna happen’.

I heard that said recently, and realised that was what I needed to do, recall the original emotion that prompted the needlework idea and get back with the program!

Obviously, this one is extremely sentimental and speaks for itself. 

I have several problems with this piece and they only popped up as I went along and kept popping….

For starters, the padding of the shapes has brought all the curved areas forward to the same frontal axis.  Which is fine for a drawing, but is too confusing for a work that’s in relief, such as this. 

So I decided what I’ll need to do is make the relationship between the sleeve and the loose pleats of the skirt distinct. 

The way I decided to do this is the same as if it were a painting e.g. pick out areas of darker tone to push back shapes that are further from the centre of the image.  It may work, or it might be disastrous.  I decided to try a test section on a separate cloth first.  All I know is, I will have to do something about the problem, because otherwise the arm and the pleats will all have the same appearance…

Decoration and contrasting textures will help, but I need to press on, while at the same time think about how I will sort this one out?

I’ve also been working on Stem Stitch Filing as probably the most effective way I’ve found to fill a shape, if you want the the stitch direction to explain the form, like this leaf in the bottom left of the image:

As you can see, last year was my year for buttercups…

I like to think what’s different about these specimens is that I was trying to make ‘botanical’, rather than stylised depictions of the ‘Little Frog’, which is the translation of Ranunculus. 

Well, I have to rush off now, until next time xxx

P.S.  I hope this blog post comes out reasonably OK, as I've lost Live Writer and my computer is too old for the new Open Source version.  

Technorati Tags: Stem Stitch Filling,Ranunculus,Victorian Couple

Hello friends, long time no see!

Well I’m back!

Been really busy, so here are some piccies…

Been also working on some new observations, hence I’ve taken some raw video footage of a very exciting discovery…more later.

Don’t want this post to be too long-winded, so here are the piccies with some short descriptions of what I was/am aiming for.

So until next time….keep sewing and keep learning!

This is a study in split stitch.  I had looked at Opus Anglicanum work in detail and did several try outs.  As I progressed with this, I chose finer and finer thread, until I made a mental leap and started something else…

Next I started this piece, which is quite complicated, but very exciting.  Its a gift for someone special, she’s seen it and is also very excited.

Here is the other figure in the piece…

While I was working on this, I decided to go back to the Medieval lady with her falcon and study bird feathers for a while.

That’s when I decided to make this…

As you can see, a different style is emerging in my work and its much more related to how I draw or paint. 

Notice the feathers on this little bird are sewn in the direction of the real feathers e.g. the stitch simultaneously describes texture and form. 

I have used stem stitch filling for the feathers, where the work is carried across the back, so that the grain of the work is always maintained, especially if you are trying to achieve gloss.  I was using plain cotton floss for this, but I noticed if you stitch it always in the same direction, it looks like silk!

Then I decided to make something special for my mother. 

We were recently reunited after 14 years.  She liked this card very much.  But alas since then, we have fallen out all over again.

Again the stitch used was mainly stem stitch filling, in the same direction with the thread carried across the back of the work.  The hair is couched.

Then I decided to make this:

Which is the overskirt garland embroidery on a Victorian ball gown worn by this figure:

Her bodice is complete and so is the overskirt now…

The bodice is supported by stiff card and laced very tightly at the back, over and over again.

I’ll leave you all now and hope that I can post again soon, but before then I need to have a wall knocked down and another built so that I can grow lots and lots of Clematis – wish me luck!

xxx

Technorati Tags: Stem stitch filling,split stitch

A sentimental ‘little something’ in its first design stages

Oh goodie, new followers!  Welcome new friends!

To everyone else, this post started out as a short one, but would you just look at what happened??…

Pipeline Design Idea

I don’t usually do this, but I decided to show you what’s in the design pipeline, as it were. 

I’ve been thinking about creating a little maritime scene made completely of Corded Detached Buttonhole (DBH) miniature shapes.

Especially as I’m on an extended ‘Bag Break’ and because I’m still in the proverbial ‘boxing ring’ with Stem Stitch, Satin Stitch, Radial Opus Plumarium and Bokhara Couching.

Incidentally, I think my next (little) video will be about Bokhara Couching because I just realised, I do mine differently to everyone else.  I relate it to Buttonhole, in a funny kind of way.  With my version, the rows of laid cords seem to fit closer together (?), but most importantly, because I’ve compared both methods closely, its my personal opinion that with my interpretation you achieve much smaller Couching stitches, as they do not unravel the thread as you work.  This however, may not be to everyone’s taste, as the couching stitches do form a ‘secondary pattern’, after all.

Anyway, on to the business of the (very wet) day.  A lot of the techniques for making the little elements for this piece are similar to later, well known crafts, such as Tatting and Crochet.

Finger Looms

If any of you have had (a lot of) ‘fun’ making Tatted Cluny leaves, the next set of images will not come as a surprise.

The first thing I did was to cover some stiff card with thick muslin-type fabric, that I found in a skip.  I kid you not!  Virtually the first thing they tell you to do when you get to Art School (to study painting!) is to go out and raid skips.  Picasso (himself!) was very good at that, and made incredible sculptures with ‘found objects’.  Well, my found object is a pair of abandoned, perfectly good, Ikea curtains that are very nice to embroider with!!!

In the picture above, you can see I’ve made the frame and am now constructing the foundation on which to anchor later rows of DBH.  To do this, I’ve simply couched down a cord row of blue (crochet) thread with very small white (hand-sewing thread), stitches. 

To make all the little bits and bobs for this project you need to be able to make DBH independently of any fabric.

The very first stage in this process is to rig up your thread around your fingers in this way. 

Then, with everything in position, you start stitching…

Eventually I made this inch long sail boat.

  

To make the mainstay mast, you embroider a Chain Stitch band.  The exact instructions for how to make Chain Stitch Bands can be found in any good set of instructions for Puncetto and is exactly the same principle as Crocheted Chain Stitch, but made with a tapestry need.  If you recall, I was researching Puncetto when I was working out the whys and wherefores regarding Trellis Stitch, which resulted in another of my little videos for YouTube (link at the top of this page). 

Then, after making 3 boat-shaped components, I went on to make the tiny lifesaver...

Using 2 colours formed into a ring, (more similarities to Tatting), I stitched Buttonhole Stitch over the 2 cord rows and switched colour after every 5 stitches.

As with Tatting, you will be able to close the ring at the end and weave in the tails. 

I got the idea to make this piece while making the Stumpwork Daisy Brooch (see earlier post). 

Voila!

If you would like to make your own cute little DBH shapes - and there are many possibilities with this technique - it might be helpful if you were to think about purchasing my research document – see link to Etsy above – which explains the concepts of even-shaping and basic shape-making.  

Gotta go ppl!

 

Technorati Tags: corded detached buttonhole,DBH,Sailing Boat made of DBH,Lifesaver made of buttonhole stitch,Cluny leaves,Puncetto,crocheted chain stitch with a tapestry needle

Stem Stitch compared to Outline Stitch

This is a ‘not-so- quick post’ (okay, its a whopper) just so that the blog can keep up with what I’m doing at the present time.

During a visit to my LYS, I was chatting to the owner, Cathy,  about the knitted pieces she has  for sale and she remarked that one of her customers had said of her own knitting, that she considered herself not that great, technically, but because she uses really expensive pure wool, people always comment on how wonderful a knitter she is.  This view of materials over skill can be contrasted to the work of my Great-Aunt, who always knitted using cheap acrylic yarn but her technical proficiency took your breath away….

*****************

Excerpt from below:

In Erica Wilson’s Embroidery Book she illustrates how Stem Stitch can turn into Satin Stitch. 

A little detour of discovery

I learned something new (and exciting) the other day  that has, kind of, changed my entire perspective on embroidery, because of a connection I was able to make to something I’d been struggling with. 

Many stitches are very similar to other stitches, with their essential difference being only orientation.  Mrs Christie wrote in Stitches and Samplers: “All embroidery stitches are derived from 7 main stitches”.

Accidentally, while considering the main differences between Stem  and Outline Stitch, it struck me how similar they are to Satin stitch (and Long & Short Stitch), but worked vertically.  Because turning the work for these four stitches results in the same action: the thread emerges from one side, you loop it round and come back up, next to the last stitch made, very closely, without bunching up, by keeping your thread well out of the way.   

The truth about Outline Stitch

In contemplating the fundamental difference between Outline and Stem Stitch, I’ve always believed that because Outline Stitch creates a narrower, less elegant line, it must surely be tightening the twist in ‘S’ twisting thread?  And that it was a compaction of the thread’s intrinsic nature that gave Outline Stitch its character? 

Then I discovered that, on the contrary, Stem Stitch preserves the ‘S’ twist of the thread, while Outline Stitch actually UNRAVELS it!

- I’ll give you a moment to absorb that, because it’s one of the most significant things I’ve learned about embroidery so far, and it’s NOT mentioned in any of my vintage books.  Indeed, even the modern ones seem to indicate that Outline must tighten the twist, as I had believed. 

To simplify this even more, the direction in which you stitch, especially if the element is vertical and you are taking horizontal (or diagonal) stitches across the shape, either going upwards or down, dictates whether you should hold the thread above or below the work. 

This is the practical, working difference between the two, (often confused) stitches.  However, when working vertically this translates as: whichever is your dominant hand, you will see the thread behaves differently, depending at which end you start, especially for these types of ‘spiral’ stitches, where the thread repeatedly turns over in an unbroken looping action. 

Indeed, if you look around the internet at what people are making, via a Google Images search, you can see that some people who are particularly proficient at Satin Stitch, seem to be aware of this little known fact, but in a kind of instinctive, unconscious way?

So just knowing this tiny, scientific fact, means you can alter your entire approach to so many situations and techniques.

Now you might be thinking: ‘well you know, I don’t do a lot of Stem Stitch’, or ‘I prefer Outline Stitch actually’  or ‘interesting, but so what?’.

Fact is, you can use this difference to change the way you tackle Satin Stitch and Long & Short Stitch.

In Erica Wilson’s Embroidery Book she illustrates how Stem Stitch can turn into Satin Stitch.  Hence, I made a video about that, recently posted on YouTube.

But more importantly than that, is once Stem Stitch becomes Satin Stitch, the rules for Stem become more important, not because of the ‘concealed exit’ (see last post) but because of ‘mirroring’ the direction of the work to achieve surface harmony aka Radial Opus Plumarium (ROP).  

Surface harmony is something I wasn’t quite able to understand before, because my threads always seemed not to lie flatly enough. 

For those of you who will skip a whole chunk of this article and jump to the end, I will say that I believe Long & Short and Satin Stitch look better if you stitch them in only one direction.  This means you would have to move around the work.  Historical images of slate frames and treadles support the view that the embroiderer could work in this way.  Whether you move around the work or turn the work in your hands, the effect of smoother stitching can be achieved if you stitch in only one direction with certain stitches, where the surface harmony is paramount.      

So, to arrive at that personal conclusion, first, I ventured into my own experimental campaign to try and sort out some Satin Stitch ‘directional’ oddities and came up with this doodle cloth version of a Briar Rose with tendril-like off-shoots.

As you can see, understanding that Outline Stitch unravels the thread has impacted significantly on the direction in which I choose to work now.  

For instance, the Briar Rose’s petals are made with Long & Short Stitch in Outline Stitch orientation throughout.  This means that I only worked in one direction and carried the thread behind the previous stitches to begin again on the same side.  This meant that my L&S turned out to be much smoother than before because I have taken full account of the ‘S’ twist in the thread and chosen to work against it, to add fullness to the rows.  Eventually I realised, I needed to create fewer stitches that were in fact longer, because they were smooth from the word go.  The overall effect is more convincingly shaded but without splitting the thread very much, if at all.  I was using cheap cotton throughout btw.         

The sepals, however, were made with Raised Fishbone Stitch which is a nice, quick way to make proud little leaflets.

The centre of the rose is made with tawny coloured thread made into square-shaped Laid work.  Then I added silver Couching stitches.  Finally French Knots were placed round the edge.  Rose centres, in fact ALL flower centres, are a major point of fascination with me.  There is so much information in a flower centre to simplify and abstract, but you still have to end-up with something suggesting its original complexity.

Oh, before I forget, here’s an image of the three leaves I made for my YouTube videos.  They are quite small. 

Then I threw myself into another quick doodle-cloth classic Tudor Rose motif, this time to work with Satin Stitch and apply what I’ve recently learned.

 

As that was going quite well, I became really impatient and went back to doing some more L&S, you’ll have to excuse the ‘spin painting’ influence on colour choices here, we had just returned from our favourite restaurant which has a lot of spin paintings on the walls!!!

This exotic interpretation was stitched in one direction only, without under padding or split stitch outline. 

Gotta go ppl !

Technorati Tags: Raised Fishbone Stitch,Stem Stitch,Outline Stitch,Satin Stitch,Long & Short Stitch,Tudor Rose,Briar Rose,unravelling the thread