Dimensions: 2.5″ x3.5″
Fabric: Muslin
Flosses: silk, cotton, rayon
Stitches: stem, satin, whipped running, detached blanket, blanket, straight, painting

I made this ACEO as part of the Phat Quarter “Comics” swap. The requirement was that the piece have images and text. I thought, being a bit of a comic book geek that I’d find some iconic image in one my comic books and just embroider that. I blogged about the process earlier, and you can see my original sketch on the post.

I couldn’t find anything I liked.

Then I started thinking I could do something interesting that was more inline with my normal “embroidered prayers” artwork. During morning prayers one morning, I had an idea. One of my morning prayers includes this bit of text:

The water conceived and gave birth to darkness
The fire conceived and gave birth to light
The wind conceived and gave birth to wisdom
The fire conceived and gave birth to light
(Adapted from the Talmud by R’Jill Hammer, from the Kohenet Siddur)

Needless to say, that’s what inspired this piece. If you read my main blog, you know I’ve been working a lot with the elements lately — so this was a great chance to begin exploring them through my art.

Generally I’m very particular about my stitches, but this time I was focused on getting the sketched look I had in my actual sketch.  The feel that came through in the sketch and especially the final design just really worked for me.  I really liked all the shading and texture of it.   I decided to experiment with a more “thread painting” technique, although in this case I would say “thread sketching.”  Thread painting tends to have a polish and perfection to it that I wasn’t looking for here.   For the floss I used a variety of choices.  Much of it variegated Kreinik silks that I’ve had forever, but never enough left to do a large piece.  Since this is a very small piece it gave me a chance to use it all again. Where ever I had a silk I could use I opted for that.  The rest is done in DMC cotton floss, and a little bit of sparkly DMC rayon silver for the wind.

The most difficult design element to work out was the fire.  While we weren’t required to use the ACEO format, I thought it would be a good challenge for me.  My preference for sometime has been round pieces that I hoop frame.  I’m very comfortable there.  A rectangular design would push me to try something new. All the types of fire I tried to draw, just weren’t working.  I even tried several different layouts.  Finally I had the idea of the lightening bolt as the fire!  That seemed to work out well, and I’m pretty happy with it.  I was able to bring the traditional fire colors in with the word “light” using a great variegated red silk floss.

The edging is what I’m least happy with.  You never finish a piece with technique you haven’t practiced!  I have so many pieces that sit in a drawer for months, if not years, because I’m afraid to screw them up in the finishing.  Here I took a risk, since it wasn’t a piece that amounted to months of work.  Just a one month from concept to finish (per the swap rules).  Needless to say, I did manage to screw up the edging — but I think the overall effect is fine.  It’s a mostly detached blanket stitch, which I chose to give a solid “frame.”

I always like to see the back of things like this, so here is the back of this piece.

Mizrach Sunrise, Cropped Detail

Size: 9″x12″, not including tassels
Stitch: chain, twisted chain, net stitch
Materials: Linen, DMC perle cotton

According to my blog, I started this piece somewhere around February 2008. The artwork was finished at least 6 months ago, but it sat in a drawer waiting for me to be motivated/inspired to do the “finishing” work. I’m a notorious procrastinator about doing finishing work. Usually it’s fear related. I’m so afraid of making a mistake and ruining a piece that’s taken months of work to complete.

Mizrach Sunrise, Full Piece View

After all the worrying about the finishing work, I ended up just backing it with simple muslin. I didn’t add any batting between the two pieces of fabric, which created a lovely natural airspace. It adds an additional level of dimension and texture to the piece.

I’m also planning on keeping this one for myself instead of selling it or giving it as a gift. This piece represents a huge artistic break through for me, and I want to keep it as a reminder of a big spiritual/artistic turning point and the friend who inspired it.

This piece was envisioned as a “mizrach,” an eastern wall marker and focal point for prayer. I leave it to you to decide if it should be on on the east wall as a sunrise or west wall as a sunset.

6″ Diameter Wall Decor / Hanging

Fabric is simple muslin that I printed a page of an old Sears catalog on.  I love the old catalog and thought  it could be fun to play with on fabric.  For some reason, I really loved the corset images.

I decided to embroider an old fashioned light bulb on it.  Shedding a little light on things?

The whole thing is securely framed in a 6″ wooden hoop that has been wrapped in copper wire.

Listed in my Etsy shop if you’re interested — and more to come!

Technorati Tags: steampunk, embroidery, hand stitched, artwork, fiber art

Size: 5″ Diameter
Materials: Muslin, Metallic floss, glass, pewter, leather, wood hoop
Stitches: Satin Stitch and Straight Stitch
Private Collection

This piece was made as a gift for a friend who is a gifted henna artist, and regularly practices her craft on me. She’s not Jewish, so I didn’t want to give her a hamsa. I asked her if her tradition had an amulet/luck charm like the hamsa, and she told me about the cimaruta. The design is based on the one I found on a Stregheria website, which is the foundation my friend’s spiritual path.

Traditional cimaruta are made from silver, so I used metallic silver floss for the majority of the design. It’s a floss that is “antique silver” so it has a mix of black and silver. the final result, before the charms were added, reminded me of a silver gelatin print.

The traditional items embedded in a cimaruta didn’t speak to my friend, so I chose things for her that I thought would be protective and relevant. From left to right: algiz rune of protection, yoga practice, evil eye ward, henna’d hand, cat. The small image in the bottom right corner is my signature cipher: a pomegranate with the Hebrew letter Kuf in the center for my name Ketzirah.

Technorati Tags: amulets, amulet design, cimaruta, embroidery, fiber art, hand-stitched

8″ on cotton “Empress Woo” fabric
Stitches:  Back stitch, blanket stitch, french knots, satin stitch
Private Collection

More pictures on Flickr

Musing on Empress Woo is a new direction in my “musing” pieces.  With these pieces I draw on the fabric with air erasing ink and stitch as the ink disappears.  Generally, I have to redraw the design many times – which ensures a very organic experience.

With Woo, I only knew what I wanted to do as I did it. I wanted to enhance this gorgeous fabric, but it’s a fine line between enhancing it and over doing it.

The final piece is 8″ framed in a round embroidery hoop.

I used a mixture of silk, cotton, and metallic floss used.  Primary stitches are back stitch, blanket stitch, french knots and a touch of satin stitch.

The piece was created as an original design to be donated to the 2009 Open Hearth Foundation Spring Ball Auction.

A shot of a work in progress called Musing on Empress Woo.  A little departure from the other Musings, as this one is on a printed fabric not a plain one.  I fell in love with this fabric, called Empress Woo, a while back and finally hunted down a fat quarter to experiment with.  Of course, I had to buy a bunch of other fat quarters with it that I didn’t really care about, but it was totally worth it!.  I’ve discovered that few people seem to have any of the actual Empress Woo pattern with Empress Woo on it in stock anymore.  There are several floral Empress Woo patterns, also by Robyn Pandolph, out there – but they just aren’t as awesome.  FYI, I found Empress Woo to begin with at Free Spirit Fabric. I think my favorite designer there is Jane Sassman.  I used some of her fabric to make a “mused upon” tarot bag for a friend a while back.

But back to the piece at hand…
In case you are wondering, her dress did not have a pattern on it.  Following the same procedure as the other musings, I drew the design on the fabric freehand with air disappearing ink.  That means, of course, that it disappears as I stitch.  I love the temporal nature of it!

Piece is 8" round and will be framed in a hoop. There is a mixture of silk, cotton, and metallic floss used.  Primary stitches are back stitch, blanket stitch, french knots and a touch of satin stitch.

It’s planned as a donation for the 2009 Open Hearth Foundation’s Persephone’s Ball silent auction.

Technorati Tags: embroidery, empress woo, robyn pandolph, hand stitched, WIP

6″ on unbleached muslin framed in hoop
Stitches: back stitch, french knots, lazy-daisy (detatched chain), satin, outline
Private Collection

First in a new series of Hamsas I’m working on.  This one is already planned as a gift to a friend who collects hamsas.  The design is inspired by the henna work of a good friend who is a henna artist.

Also, this piece is the beginning of me using a new cipher to sign my work.  Names are really important to me,  and I realized that this is not the work of Carly Lesser anymore.  It really represents a shift and is part of the work of being Ketzirah.  The new cipher is a pomegranate with the Hebrew letter Kof (ק) in the center, for my Hebrew name Ketzirah.  Originally the Kof was a pictograph that symbolized a needle, which a is a super fun “coincidence.”  I can’t say that I think this is a coincidence at all, but to each her own.

I started working with round pieces recently too.  This is also a fairly intentional shift.  I’ve also taken on the moniker of Magelet, which means circle maker.  This is one way to express that part of my work in a very literal way.  The desire to work with round forms came before the concious realization of the connection.

Technorati Tags: hamsa, amulet, magelet, embroidery, henna, french knot, back stitch, chain stitch

Size: 6″ Round Framed
Stitches: colonial knots, whipped running
Materials: Perle Cotton floss, mother-of-pearl button, linen
Private Collection of Angela Raincatcher

Hand embroidered on linen using DNC cotton perle. Vintage mother of pearl button in center. Stitches: colonial knots and whipped running stitch. Framed in 6″ wooden hoop.

This is part of a series of Musings. The design is drawn directly on the fabric with air disappearing ink and I just let the design evolve.

Technorati Tags: abstract, embroidery, fiber art

This has been finished for a while, but I didn’t have any good pictures of it.

The work is done in the Tambour Stitch style, but with a standard embroidery needle. I used DMC Perle Cotton for this, which gave it a really nice texture.

It’s available for purchase at my shop on Etsy.

Technorati Tags: embroidery, judaica, tambour stitch, original design, pomegranates, challah cover

I’m so excited this little set of buttons just sold. They were such a fun little experiment. I’ll have to do some more now!

More on the details of the stitch work and such.

Technorati Tags: etsy, bees, save the bees, embroidered buttons, embroidery