Crewel Lily of the Valley: I think it's finished :)

After smoothing out a couple of the leaf outlines and making the top fillings in the leaves slightly darker, I think it's finally finished.  I've stitched this piece with Appletons Wool on Linen with a bit of DMC Diamant.  Below are a few photographs of the finished piece.  Now, to the sketchbook to plot the next piece!

Back to Blogging and Back to an Old Project!

After I finished my RSN Crewelwork piece, I was dying to start a new piece of crewel, so I had started this piece back in 2014.  I wanted to combine the traditional crewel feel and techniques with a motif that was a bit more modern and designed this Lily-of-the-Valley design.  I had almost finished the filling in the leaves when I needed to take it off the slate frame to start another piece.  It sat in my studio cabinet and I'd get it out periodically to consider finishing.  However, there was always another piece that was moved ahead of it.  So there it sat until a few weeks ago.  I had been working on finishing my City and Guilds Level 3 Certificate when I just needed something to stitch- no big decisions, something that was ready to go and just pure pleasure.  And, from the depths of my cabinet this piece emerged!  I framed it back up, got my ziploc baggie of threads back out and started stitching on it again.

 Since I thought the filling on the leaves were complete, I started back with the stem stitch on the stem.  I have to admit that the methodical packed stem stitch is a technique I find incredibly satisfying.  It looks so lovely on the surface and it really enjoyable to stitch. 

I chose to use darker greens because if you study the leaves of lily of the valley, you will see that the leaves are mainly fairly dark green with faint lines of lighter/more yellow green.  I wanted that darkness reflected in this piece. 

After I finishing the stems, I felt that the fillings on the leaves needed a bit of darkening.  The darkness of the darkest green in the stem seemed to dull the subtle shading of the lighter greens in the fillings.  I decided to go ahead and add in some darker greens while following the subtle gradient already defined in the lighter colors. 

Part of the reason that this piece had sat in my cabinet for so long is that I had started stitching two of the blossoms and I was not convinced about the techniques I had chosen.  They felt flat and just "not right",  so I ripped it all out and started anew.  I also decided to add in a bit of gold so the white would stand off the cream of the linen more.  I thought the gold would help to break up the white in a way that may help to highlight some of the subtle blanc to cream shading I was exploring.  And, let's be honest, I like to gild the lily when I can.

For the gold, I am using one of my current favorite metallic thread--DMC Diamant.  Tracy Franklin introduced me to it when I took her Silk and Gold class in Williamsburg a few years ago and I love this thread!  In all the metallic threads that I have used I think this one shreds the least.  It is also a similar (though not exactly the same) line weight as the Appletons Wool I was using for the rest of the piece when it is stitched.  It is also very helpful that it is pretty easy to get my hands on now too as a number of online stores stock it as well as Hobby Lobby. 

There are a couple minor tweaks I'd like to make before I reveal the full final piece.  I will post it shortly.  In the meantime, I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!

Experimental Canvaswork Lily of the Valley : 2 New Pieces

For part of my City and Guilds course, I needed to complete an experimental canvaswork piece.  I decided that I wanted to see how metal threads reacted when stitched using canvas ground fabric and canvaswork stitch patterns.  I ended up doing two of these instead of one for a couple reasons.  Originally, I was going to do the first piece with much more experimental techniques on the floral motif.  However, as I started stitching the piece I became more interested in the idea of challenging the stitch pattern with naturalistic shading.  Could I get the shading to override the geometry of the stitch pattern?  After I finished that piece, I felt that it was not experimental enough to turn in for that module so I decided to go back to my trusty trial motif and execute it with the metal materials.  Again, sticking with the traditional stitch patterns and allowing the materials to illustrate the different concepts being explored. 

My first piece (which is now off to be displayed as part of the Small Works: SDA at 40 exhibition): 

At my old house I had a wonderful garden that I planted as stress relief from my corporate America job.  I always had something in bloom and it felt so wonderful to get dirty and nurture the plants that I then ended up photographing, sketching and finally stitching.  It is a very intimate process I think when you grow the plants that then lend inspiration.  I had a wonderful patch of Lily of the Valley that I planted around the time I got married that I continually studied as they are my favorite!  This was actually a design from some of the observatory photography that I did for my RSN Silk Shading piece.  I have always loved the odd angle that I took this photograph and the fact that though it is recognizably lily of the valley it lacks the delicacy that most lily of the valley motifs posses. 

I began this piece by goldleafing the background.  I thought it would be interesting to turn this photograph into an icon of the flower I love so much.  I was thinking a lot of the Byzantine icons and the ecclesiastical embroidery that I love so much.  Why should gold only be used for saints in this way?  I was originally going to go back and lightly stitch the background with 1 strand of cotton to give it a similar feel as that repeat like you see on copes.  However, I decided against that in the end as it felt a bit too busy and I had a deadline for the SDA exhibition.  I think I will probably do this in another piece in the future as I think the idea does have some potential.  

For the canvas stitching on this piece I wanted to translate the naturalistic shading like you see in silk shading but through canvas stitches.  I thought it would be really interesting as upclose the piece feels very different as the shadow of the stitch pattern highlights the geometric nature of the stitch patterns.  While from a distance, the stitch pattern is lost and the shading of the thread colors becomes the focus.I used a mixture of cotton and silk flosses. 

The second piece was another iteration of the same Lily of the Valley design that I've been using for to experiment with for other techniques:

I painted the entire canvas on this piece.  The main background has been goldleafed and then stitched with 1 strand of cotton.  The blossoms were silver-leafed and the leaves were painted with color concentrate pigments.  

All the stitching on the Lily of the Valley is executed with metal threads, the blossoms in 90% silver both using passing and smooth purl and the leaves and stem in gilt smooth passing.  All the stitch patterns are traditional canvaswork stitch patterns that have not been manipulated.  I wanted the change in materials to be very evident as I have also stitched this piece in fibers with canvas stitches.  

 
I have to admit that both seeing this piece while stitching and photographing this piece have proven difficult.  Between the reflections of the metals and the large open holes from the canvas and stitch pattern, this piece is a bit of a hypnotic maze to look at (especially for hours at a time!).

I Finished a UFO (unfinished object)!!!

Many of you may remember my Green Canvaswork Sampler that I had stitched in preparation for my RSN Canvaswork piece.  It's one of the pieces that just got published!  I had stitched a grid of 25 different squares and had started a composition to the side using my RSN Goldwork Lily of the Valley design.  I finally went back and finished the piece on the other side of the squares! 

The funny part is the fight to not go back and redo everything on a piece that you had started a few years previously.  I had stitched the whole lily of the valley part and the background inside the flower.  I only had the background to finish.  I thought that by doing the background in wool (in tent and cashmere stitch) that it would let the lily of the valley stitched in cottons and silks to stand out off the background.  After doing my RSN Canvaswork piece, there is so much that I'd like to change about this piece, however, I felt that it was important to keep it true to the skill set I had at that time. 

Other links: 

Green Canvaswork Sampler

Green Canvaswork Lily of the Valley

RSN Goldwork Lily of the Valley

Cabinet of Curiosities: Pinkeep

This summer I started a new course--The Cabinet of Curiosities: Part 1 Caskets with Tricia Nguyen.  I have long been fascinated by the 17th Century Stumpwork, especially as I have a project of my own that I want to use the techniques for (more on this later when the "idea" is coming together!).  With the help of a Legacy Scholarship awarded by the EGA and my ever-encouraging husband, I am excited that I get to take this course!

In addition to the historic knowledge I am gaining from it, there is also a series of mini-projects that I will be working through to learn the techniques.  The first of these "mini-projects" is the Pinkeep.  The materials for this project are 1750 Montrose linen canvas (approx. 24 count) and Soie Paris thread (3 strands).   The stitching is done all in tent stitch.   

I am using all the same materials, dimensions, and instructions as the project instructions require.  The only difference is that I have used different colors (though still from the 17th Century Color Palette) and my own design.  I based my design for my Pinkeep off of a photo of lily-of-the-valley at my old house.  I had taken a ton of photos of my lily-of-the-valley patch there a few years back when I was prepping for my RSN Silk Shading module.   Someday maybe I will be able to exhibit all my lily-of-the-valley's together!  

This is the first time I have worked with Soie Paris.  It has been an interesting challenge, especially with using the 3 strands.  I have been stranding them the same way as I did with my RSN canvaswork to try to keep it nice and flat.  The silk is soooooo slippery though!  I'm slowly getting the tension more even and smoother and it's great to work with a new thread.  I love the shine of the silk and the vibrant colors and I think once it "clicks" with my fingers I will be a huge fan of the silk threads. 

I thought I would try tramming the stem to make it more raised.  I am happy with the results (mostly) until the stem turns to the horizontal.  I stitched it bottom to top and maybe should have stitched it top to bottom.  Regardless, I'm fairly certain the top portion of the stem will be coming out.  No project is truly a project until something has been ripped out of it I suppose! 

Canvas Practice Continued . . .

So, I had a lot of fun with the 1.5" squares of the stitch samples.  They went really fairly "fast", so I decided to challenge myself with a little composition.  I figured it would be good to test these stitches out in non-square shapes.  It was good that I thought to practice this, and Chloe, thank you for your suggestions on what to practice too!  

I decided to use my design from my RSN Certificate Goldwork as I liked the design and it had some good solid areas to work with.  I have done all the leaves in cottons (mixes of solid DMC's and variegated Valdani embroidery floss).  On 3 of the leaves I used the same stitch for the whole leaf and just focused on shading with the stranded cottons.  For the other 2 leaves, I attempted to transition from one stitch to another.  

Further plans:  Blossoms will be white and maybe a wee bit of pink or gray for shading in cottons.  I was planning on doing the background in wool but not certain what color yet.  I thought the shine of the cotton on the lily of the valley would be nice contrast with the wool background.  

RSN Goldwork: . . . . . I'm finished!

So today at about 4:30pm, I finished all the embroidery work for my RSN Goldwork piece.  Pretty excited to say the least, especially after the previous 2 modules took a bit of time after I got home!  All I have to do now is mount it and send it off for accessment.  Yippee!

I thought I would share a couple notes on the "challenges" of this piece:

- The intersections where the blossoms overlapped the stem were especially challenging because it meant that the cutwork needed to meet the pearl purl outlining the blossoms and leaves nicely and appear to go smoothly...all while trying to keep my angle from section to section.  It took me a good number of tries and I will be honest at one time I had to take a bit of a break and go get breakfast at Leonards across from Tracy's studio.  It was a really great challenge for me though and I'm glad that I've done it.  Tracy showed me how I could gently shift the pearl purl out of the way so the smooth purl would sit nicely.  I also found that it was easier to work on those areas by working ground fabric side into blossom intersection than the other way (so I was tucking the stitch into the highest part). 

- At about 3pm today I realized that I had one small stem that overlapped my cutwork.  Panic set it.  How in the world do I cross the cutwork without cracking it?  Ahh!!!!  Tracy's suggestion was to mold it into shape and strategically stitch it down on either side of the stem.  One of her student's had done this for a pair of bird's feet to great success.  It was tricky and I did hit the smooth purl once (thankfully the tiny nick came out), but I think it worked.  It was an unexpected extra detail that I kind of love!

- The biggest challenge in this piece was how the elements overlapped and had lots of intersections.  Something to consider when designing the next piece!  I'm really wanting to do this design again but introduce some color into the mix. 

RSN Goldwork: Progress Report

Finished Day 7 by starting the cutwork on the stem.  Getting close!

RSN Goldwork: Progress Catch-up

 Progress at end of Day 4 of class

Progress in the middle of the weekend

 I just loved how the stitches on the back looked like beautiful pad stitching or chicken feet and had such a lovely rhythm to them.

 Progress at end of weekend.  4.5 leaves down.  1/2 a leaf to go (plus the outline of 2 of them).

 Plunging!!!

 Progress at end of Day 5 of class.  Outlining 2 leaves and working on the buds and blossoms tomorrow!

RSN Goldwork: Day 3

 Applying the first layer of felt padding

 One leaf down, 4 to go!

Progress at end of Day 3

RSN Goldwork: Back in Durham

 I am very excited to be back in Durham stitching with some wonderful women at Tracy Franklin's studio.  Monday morning, I got off the airplane, took the train, dropped things off at my hotel and went and walked around.  There was a tour of Durham Castle starting so I joined it.  I had never seen the inside and it was beautiful!  

This time in Durham, I am starting my goldwork module for the RSN Certificate.  When I was starting to plan my design, Tracy recommended that I look at Art Nouveau or Art Deco for reference.  I love the jewelry from these design movements, so started there--with lily of the valley!  Iconically they are my two favorite design periods so I was quite excited about the suggestion.  I wanted the piece to have the flow of Art Nouveau lines and feel fairly simple so I could add the complexity/interest with the stitches and gold threads/wires that I choose. 

Calico framed up, silk long and shorted on, design transfered, design stab stitched . . . ready to start stitching!

 final design

progress at end of Day 2

RSN Silk Shading- finished!

I have finally finished my silk shading for my RSN Certificate!  I look it off my frame last night.  Thank you everyone for your kind and encouraging words with this project!  Now onto Goldwork- yippee!!!!

Here are a few images of the final.  When I was in Williamsburg, Tracy Franklin kindly took a look at it and helped me with one of my issues (mainly the middle blossom).  Per her advice, I added some highlighting to it so that it created the perception of a darker gray.  Does the middle blossom look more rounded and the bottom edge more fluttery? 

RSN Silk Shading- Almost Finished!

Getting close to being finished with this piece!