Embroidered Collage

I did not exactly meet the artistic goals that I set out last January, but I feel that I fulfilled the intent behind them.  I did make direct progress on all of my business goals.

Top 5 Accomplishments in 2006

1. Developed a working method and focus - my layerings on stretched canvas
2. Completed 2 major works, Dragon Scales and Snowfall
3. Juried into 2 exhibits and participated in 2 others
4. Kept creating, sketching, and learning
5. Participated regularly in local and online communities as a professional artist

I answered the purposes of the goals that I discarded.  The daily art challenge was intended to push me to learn by creating more and while I ended up feeling pressured by it I did take up projects throughout the year that kept me moving forward.  My original thought behind answering the two Fiber Alliance challenges was to have a reason to create larger pieces of work.  I did that, but it was from other motivations instead.    Printmaking appealed to me as a medium that I could master and promote, but I redirected that goal into layered collages as I became more aware of what I wanted.

It was a good year.  There were some emotional ups and downs as my art received positive responses or did not meet my own expectations.  I struggled with my focus and thoughts from time to time, but looking back I can see my consistent growth over time.  I hope it will continue in the coming year.

I began a new Footstep layering, so this post could be called Part 1, but I did do the original sketches back in November, so I decided to go with Part 2.  On the other hand, it could be called Part 3, since I also blogged about acquiring the beads that inspired it.

In any case, I decided to develop the sketch that I had most enjoyed, which was based directly on the pattern of one of the disks.  I sketched it again directly onto the gessoed canvas, using watercolor crayon, and then painted on my first layer of acrylics.  I wanted a bright, slightly warm, green that would be light enough to contrast well with the black.  I did use primarily colored pigments to create the black, a dark green and dioxizine purple, but I can't tell the difference from if I had used pure black.  You might be able to see the folds in the canvas on your screen.  They show the 12"x12" portion that will be seen on the front of the stretched canvas when the piece is complete.

  A couple weeks ago I had been wandering through the fabric store and saw a pre-cut fat quarter with a printed pattern that was similar to the patterning on the jaspers.  The primary color was beige instead of green, but I picked it up in case I could do anything useful with it for the jasper series, and if not, well, it was a neat piece of fabric.  For this artwork I cut a swath of the fabric and cut a few holes in it, so there would be a variation in texture with the original painted canvas showing through.  I laid the cloth on the canvas to see if I liked the results.

I thought that the concept was sound, but there weren't enough holes.  I spent most of my time watching a movie cutting out more holes.  I would have never thought it would be a time consuming process!  I wanted them to be irregular, so I used dull scissors and cut off tips of bunched fabric.  I knew the scissors that I normally used for paper would not cut the fabric fibers cleanly.  I also wanted a range of holes and to not be able to predict exactly how they looked, so I would pinch the fabric in one spot and bunch up the rest, then cut off a portion of the twist.  The holes were not perfectly round and were different sizes depending on how much of the tip I had cut off.

After adhering the fabric to the canvas with gel medium I painted over it.  I wanted to bring the pattern that I had just covered back on to the top of the image so I used glazing medium with just enough pigment in it to tint, but not enough to obscure the interesting pattern of the fabric.  The pattern ended up being a bit different than my original painting, but it looked good.  I was very pleased with the results from collaging the fabric into the work.

The one thing that I took away from the January issue of Somerset Studio was a decision to purchase and use one of the Japanese accordian fold moleskines.  I'd seen other artists' work with them, but this article tipped me over the edge, especially when the idea of stitching through to the back was mentioned.  I just like the idea of small controlled bits of art and a collage that you can either see as one unified piece or many smaller spreads.

I've been thinking a lot about the size of art in general.  I loved artist trading cards because they could contain one small thought or a compilation of thoughts and be intriguing either way.  Sometimes I want to get back into that.  The foot square size is good for me for my layerings, but on the piece I'm currently working with and on Kite-Flying I find myself sometimes wishing it was larger, so I could add in more elements or stretch things out further, yet I have no real desire to actually work larger at the moment.  Twelve inches square feels so different depending on the format and location and style of art I've been viewing.  The relative nature of it is frustrating.

I am considering deliberately making small pieces and just compiling them to create a larger work, but am not sure yet about what direction to take.  It might be a good way to use the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge pieces.  I could do it alongside my One Hundred Footsteps.  I am only doing one of those at a time to deliberately push for completions, but that leaves chunks of times that I could flit around a bit as well as study principles.  I'll think about it some more.

Fireside Stitchery in Frazer, PA is an amazing needlework store with walls covered with threads in all the colors available for a each range.  They focus primarily on needlepoint, but have threads and information for other techniques as well.  I had been there once a couple years ago but the impact was still amazing when I went there yesterday.  I wandered around, looking at all the fibers.  I reviewed the bookshelves and found a couple books I might like to get later.  I looked at the painted needlepoint canvases and was reminded that I would like to stitch something along those lines, but by painting my own canvas, of course.  Hmm, it might look interesting to do a carefully stitched piece, then cut the raw canvas in an irregular fashion and add it to a layering. 

I was intrigued by the new ranges of linen threads that hadn't been there a couple years ago.  They made me want to pull out some nice linen fabric and stitch something that emphasized that textural difference.  There was also a line of fibers similar to stranded cotton - but it was 100% bamboo.  It felt almost like silk.  I restrained myself from purchasing any extraneous threads, but couldn't resist a set of three double-eyed needles.  I'll play with those later.

Eventually I returned to my original purpose for the trip - to acquire a range of fibers for working on the artist's canvas and Peltex and such for layering.  I have plenty of metallics and for this purpose didn't want to pay extra for silk.  I needed a few more colors of plain perle cotton #8, but was really interested in picking up some of Caron's Wildflowers, which is a slightly thinner thread.  The variegation appeals to me, although you can't see it very well in the photo, and provides more uses for the thread.  I seriously considered some of the wools and wool blends but decided to stay with cotton.  I also picked up some of the Watercolours, which have strands resembling a #5 perle cotton, thicker than the #8.  I was very tempted by some of the tubular nylons, since that moves well through fabric and spreads out nicely, but decided that could wait for some other time.  I did pick up two hanks of Impressions from the clearance bin as well.

It was a very successful and satisfying trip. 

Erica Wilson defines crewel embroidery as surface embroidery worked in wool.  That can cover a lot of ground, but historically it brings to my mind the Jacobean bed curtains and then the more recent projects from the seventies.  I had never tried the technique but a couple years back I bought a kit that refers back to the former for inspiration.  It is designed by Carolyn Hook and called "Jacobean Impressions I."  The thread used is actually Caron Impressions, a wool-silk blend that I believe is a little finer than traditional crewel wools.

I was feeling the yen to do a bit of traditional embroidery so over the weekend I finished a cross-stitch sampler from my pre-original art days then unearthed the crewel embroidery kit from my stash.  Each flower represents a couple hours of stitching.  The width of the blue one is a little under an inch, for reference.  The petals of both flowers are made of long and short shading stitch while the green portion is satin stitch.  There are some more complex stitches elsewhere in the piece which I haven't gotten to yet.  I used a small hoop for this work and do not think I would have been able to keep the tension properly if I had not.  Since the threads pull over a larger area in such density, they distort the fabric more than most counted embroidery.

It is a very different feeling to stitch so closely, deliberately trying for full coverage and somewhat realistic shading.  The thread feels nice going through the fabric and I like the effect.  I intend to continue with the project in odd moments and evnetually complete it.  I can see using these types of techniques on slips for my layerings, or even working directly on an ungessoed canvas that has been treated in other ways.  I'm not sure how well it would work on gessoed canvas.

Oooo, toys.  We visited the parents over the weekend and returned home to the presents we had bought each other, although we didn't have any surprises this year.  My husband had remembered I wanted a Dremel and found this other brand of a similar tool in the store earlier this fall and checked to see if I still wanted one.  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it, but I'm sure I'll find something because it's nifty.

I ordered the Liquitex set of all 32 colors of the Basics acrylic paint.  I wanted to spend a little more time exploring the idea of how different pigments interact and this looked like a great way to do it.  Unfortunately, they messed up my box and I have a duplicate of a green, but that's not a big deal.

I saw the Decorative Ornament book in the sale section at Barnes and Noble a couple months ago and grabbed it.  Pattern is another subject area that interests me for future works and this book has beautiful color plates combined with explanatory text from across cultures and eras.  I believe Dover also carries a booklet of just the plates, printed a little larger.

I wanted a newer camera and my husband helped me look for one.  I was after something both smaller in size and with more megapixels than my current camera, but still under $100.  Target had this Polaroid on sale a couple weeks ago.  I haven't done a lot of work with it, but it seems nice so far.  I use my husband's larger camera for the shots that will turn into reproductions or slides, but I like having my own available to use more as a sketchbook aid.

I hope all of you who celebrate it are having a merry Christmas.