Penland On a Foggy Morning: work in progress

I've started a new piece,  Penland On a Foggy Morning.  I'm using a photograph that I took at Penland last fall when walking to class from my cottage.  I digitally printed the image on linen canvas.  Then I layered it with a piece of silk gauze that I "dyed" using an eco-transferring technique with marigolds from Penland. On the bottom third of the composition where the area in the image is covered in moss and ferns, I have gone in and removed areas of warp or weft in the silk gauze and moved some of the warp and wefts around to graduate the opacity.  I wanted to play around with changing the transparency of the gauze and trying to capture the fog through the fluffier silk threads of the gauze and how the tension changes as you stitch it.  By moving the remaining threads around after I removed surrounding ones, it created a really interesting texture and reduced the visible grainlines of the gauze.

For the stitching, I am only using basic stitches--straight, chain and back stitch.  I'm focusing on color mixing and really trying to use my stitches in a looser and more expressive way.  The threads are all Valdani variegated quilting threads so they have a nice sheen to them.  I cannot quite figure out if I like the quilting thread or the embroidery floss better for thread mixing.  I love the sheen of the quilting thread and it seems to sit on the fabric more proudly.  However, the embroidery floss blends a bit smoother as the strands stick together more and work more cohesively together.  The jury is still out and I think it may just be a situation where one is better for some projects and the other is better for the rest.  It is definitely something that I'm wanting to test more. 

I will be adding in some metals and lots more stitches so this piece is just in progress!

 Before any stitching or fabric manipulation.  Here you can see the imprints from the marigold eco-transfer and I've overdyed it with a tea stain so it's not too white.

These are some of the colors I'm using and the stitching so far. 

Article About the UK: Stitching a Cultural Identity Study Abroad Program that I Developed

NC State's Office of International Affairs wrote an exciting article about the UK: Stitching a Cultural Identity study abroad program I led and the Internationalization Seed Grant that I received to develop the program.
Here's a link to it if you'd like to check it out:  https://international.ncsu.edu/ukstitching/

I am still reflecting on this trip even 5 months after our return.  Developing it and collaborating with the Royal School of Needlework was an absolutely amazing experience in itself.  I cannot say enough wonderful things about the student's RSN tutor, Mandy Ewing.  If you get a chance to take a class with her I highly recommend it!!!  Curating the different studio and museum visits, coordinating the different cultural activities and introducing students to London is something I will cherish.  They are a very special group of girls!

The students wrote blog posts for the College of Design while we were in the UK.  You can check out there posts here at the DesignLife Blog.

 At Hampton Court Palace with Henry VIII

 Final dinner with Mandy (our wonderful, wonderful RSN tutor)

White Clover

I love clover and I wanted to do a white clover after I finished my Red Clover piece.  This clover is tiny.  The frame opening is only about 3.5" tall!  

I used similar techniques as the Red Clover, mixing Valdani variegated embroidery flosses in long and short and bullion knots with stretched gilt purls.  The ground fabric is even weave linen.  I wanted to keep the techniques fairly simple on this piece since it was so small.  Mounting this piece was quite fiddly with it being such a small oval.  Overall I'm pretty happy with it.  The variegation did not fall quite as nicely on the leaves as on the Red Clover but I did not let myself plan which area of the variegation to use.  I did a couple of the leaves multiple (multiple) times so I guess I kind of cheated that way a little bit.  Also, I used a plain stem stitch on the stems on this piece instead of the stretched pearl purl on the Red Clover piece. 
On to the next weed!  

Purple to Gold Canvaswork Sampler: finished!

I started this sampler as part of my Color Interactions Illuminated in Goldwork Embroidery Faculty Research Grant that I was awarded last year.  I finally was able to finish the last couple squares over Christmas.  I was exploring the effect of stitch pattern on color and investigating the question, "Is gold the complement of purple?".  

For the top 4 rows, each square is a different canvaswork stitch pattern worked in a gradient from gold to purple.  The rows are in a gradient of Anchor purples (the Anchor color choices were much nicer than the DMC purples).  The last column is all Upright Gobelin stitch to compare the same stitch pattern in the different purples.  The last two rows are simultaneous contrast samples referencing Josef Albers color explorations.  

I stitched this sampler on 18 count mono canvas with cotton Anchor embroidery floss and DMC metallic embroidery floss.   Each square is a 1" square. 

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

2016. . . A Look Back and A Few Things Not Mentioned Yet

2016 has had its amazing moments and its challenging ones.  As many of you know, I fell in September and broke my elbow.  I actually taught class for 4 days holding my arm thinking it would get better--it did not.  Anyways, that little fracture was a huge wrench thrown into the mix for me trying to balance family, teaching at NC State, teaching outside of NC State and research/stitching/sketching. 

This photo captures my 2016: 

This was taken a couple days after we brought our new daughter home from the hospital.  I was feeding her in my studio right before her newborn photos were taken.  My studio is a complete disaster--that has become the normal, organized piles have multiplied into organized chaos. I have grown to love this photo as it has reminded me of house beautiful the seeming chaos can be.  All I can say is more than anything, 2016 has shown me what teamwork is.  Having a husband that is so supportive of me is not something that I take for granted.

I broke my right (ahhh yes right) elbow at the beginning of September and that proved more difficult to manage than I would have thought.  I've been trying to catch back up since then.  I was trying to get these posts out before year's end so I wanted to do a bit of a rundown on some of the things that I have not had a chance to talk about before 2016 was too distant in the past. You can guess what my New Year's Resolution is (posting more and more regularly 😀)!

RSN Certificate: finished!
I am so excited and thrilled to say that I officially passed my Royal School of Needlework Certificate of Technical Hand Embroidery with distinction!  I must admit that I still do a little dance each time I say it.  I am very glad to have done this course as I have learned so much through it concerning embroidery and I have gotten to know some amazing people too!

SAGA:  Lecture and Teaching workshop.  
I had the wonderful experience of teaching for SAGA at their National Convention back in September.  I did a 1 day Workshop of Haystacks of Giverny and presented my lecture Evolution of Consuelo about my thesis project from graduate school.  I had a wonderful time teaching the workshop and I cannot tell you how excited I was to be given the opportunity to talk about the research from my Masters Thesis Project.  It was the first time I was able to talk about it since graduate school.  It was a great reminder of all the work I had done going into it and it seemed like everyone enjoyed hearing about it and seeing my gown and samples. 

I wish I had some photos to share, however, I broke my elbow the weekend before this convention and in the craziness of teaching without my right arm I forgot to take any.  I had a great group of stitchers though and it was wonderful to learn more about SAGA.  Everyone was so gracious in helping me (and my elbow). I also learned that doing a cross stitch with a broken elbow is totally fine but stitching a chain stitch with a broken elbow was pretty painful.

Textile Society of America: Research Poster
My research poster was accepted for the TSA Biennial Symposium in Savannah, GA in October.  This is me right before the poster presentation began with my poster in the background.  I presented the research I have been doing on my Color Interactions Illuminated in Goldwork Embroidery project.

EGA National Seminar
I was pretty busy in Alexandria as I presented a lecture and taught 2 two-day workshops.  Below are some photos from my Gregg Floral contemporary goldwork class.  I am looking forward to teaching a mini-class for EGA at their National Seminar in Asheville in 2017!

 Opus Anglicanum Exhibition
My year ended with my husband and I taking a trip to London just before Christmas and seeing the amazing Opus Anglicanum exhibition currently on view at the V&A. To say it was incredible seems like a shallow assessment of such a beautifully and curated exhibition.  The most incredible thing for me was to see pieces that I had read about and had not seen in person yet.  I was totally the nerd writing and sketching as I slowly made my way through the exhibition.  It was interesting too to see a few pieces that I have seen numerous times in different light (literally different lighting)--details that I had "seen" before and missed completely, colors that had been difficult to see in the previous locations now evident.  

The exhibition guide is wonderful too so if you cannot go and are interested in Opus Anglicanum, it is well worth the price.  I've put a link with the image to it on Amazon below.  Great essays and wonderfully detailed photos!

Additionally, I've ordered The Age of Opus Anglicanum by M.A. Michael (one of the curator's of the Opus Anglicanum exhibition).  It is a collection of papers from a Symposium at the V&A in 2013 on Opus Anglicanum.  I cannot wait for it to arrive!