Teen Angst
5″ Diameter
Stitches: straight, cross, long-arm cross, satin, back
Materials: unbleached muslin, cotton DMC 6 strand embroidery floss, wooden hoop painted with acrylic paints

I love the Phat Quarter group on Flickr.  The range of work is really amazing, and the swaps — well they really challenge me.  The theme for the most recent swap was “movies.”   The past couple of swaps I’ve stayed well within my comfort-zone, design wise. The themes still let me do work that was spiritually focused, and make something appropriate for the swap. Here’s an example and here’s another example.

Yes, I could have done something from “The Ten Commandments” or something, but “Heathers” was the first movie that popped into my head and so I went with it. Thankfully, my swap partner’s favorite movies seemed to fit well with this choice.

I searched for lots of images from the film and found one of the dream sequence with Veronica’s (Winona Ryder) head sticking out of the grass and two croquet balls on either side of her. It was such a great image, I used it as the basis for the design. When I decided on the “My teen-angst bullshit now has a body count,” I switched out the balls used in the original photo for the ones that represent the two Heathers who die in the film.

I painted the hoop blue, which is Veronica’s color in the film. I also backed it with special fabric (other photo) that I thought worked well with the image.

Of course, I just realized that I spelled “angst” wrong in the piece.   Not only is the position of that word my least favorite thing in the execution, but there’s a typo.  D’oh!

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.

The theme of the swap is:

COMICS/CARTOON. Basically anything with text relating to an image, original or interpretation. You can interpret that as narrowly or widely as you like!

I’m a comic book geek so at first I thought I’d grab an iconic frame from something in my collection, but nothing was really speaking to me.  So I broadened my concept to the text/image but not comic book.

Concept 1

I love the Alice in Wonderland designs that Urban Threads has done, so I thought I might do something with that — which is where Concept 1 comes from.   The girl is my crappy sketch of the Urban Threads Alice,  which I would use if I did this one. This concept is kind of half-baked.  The layout isn’t even close yet.  The quote is from a book of poetry that my Great-Aunt and Uncle gave me when I was a kid.  I still have the book.

All my friends seem to like this design the best, so even if I don’t do this for the swap, I may do it and give it away!

Concept 2
Most of my work is spiritual in nature, so I wanted to at least try and come up with something I would have done anyway for the swap. I do like to mix things up and just do some fun stuff from time to time, which is what Concept 1 is all about.

This concept is a visualization of the following quote:

“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 earth conceived and gave birth to life.” (Adapted from Genesis Rabbah 13:3 by RK’Jill Hammer)

The cool thing is I could do this piece in English or Hebrew.  Also, I didn’t want the piece to be so overtly spiritual that the recipient couldn’t enjoy it at face value.  I’m still working on the imagery options for light. I did some additional sketches that had a sunrise and lightening bolts.

I think this is clearly the stronger of the two designs, which makes sense. Mr. X Stitch, who runs the PHAT Quarter group voted for this one as my swap entry.  So did my awesome husband, Art.

Life Begins Now - a work in progress

Almost done!!!!!  Finally after nine months of work, I’m almost done. The entire canvas has now been filled with chain stitches, twisted chains, and french knots.

I’ve used probably 20-30 skeins of variegated ecru perle cotton floss.  I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of french knots.

The final step will be to balance it all out and add the rest of the color "sparks."  I’m still planning on doing that in stainless steel silk to give it even more texture.

Sketch for a kippah design I’m working on.  I need to move the name over a bit so it sits just a little more nestled in the tree, but other than than I rather like it.  I’m not sure how it will look on someone’s head.  I still have to think about that.

I’m wondering if the roots would go in the front (at forehead) or if the roots would be at the back of the head?  I guess I could leave that up to the wearer.

[update: 5/1/2010]
[update: 4/25/2010]
[update: 3/13/2010]

This is the first stages of a new piece created in tribute to my Kohenet sister Yosefa.  I drew this the morning before I left for her funeral.  The piece isn’t about grief, it’s about all the color Yosefa brought to the world.  The floss on the left side is a gorgeous variegated cotton floss from the Caron Collection.  I bought it at the best embroidery shop in the DC area, which is still a haul from my house.  When I actually get down there I stock up on all kinds of fun things.  But I digress…

I’m planning on continuing with the tambour-stitch style I’ve been working in, but really stepping things up and doing some serious surface embellishment.  I feel inspired by the work of Sharon B. and her “Sumptuous Surfaces” class.  I haven’t taken it (yet), but I’m already inspired.  So I’ll start with the tambour style, but mix it up after that.

Anyone who knew Yosefa would understand this.  She was an amazingly colorful, highly textured person.  Here’s a tribute with one of my favorite pictures of Yosefa.  I don’t know what I’ll do with the final piece.  If the Seattle Women’s Tattoo Forum, which she co-founded, has their art show again next year I may see if I can donate it to them.

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.

I’ve become really fascinated by Habu Textiles stainless steel silk yarns.

I first saw it in action at Artomatic this year when my friend Rania had incorporated some into her amazing mixed-media artwork. She told me about how amazing it was, but I wasn’t sure that I could work with it because I’m not a knitter. I started playing with some ideas and finally gave in and bought some.

I’m experimenting with “net stitch” vessels. My stitch work here is kind of messy, because the stuff is hard to get used to. Even so, I’m really happy with this experiment. I love that it’s so sculptural. I think I’m going to invest in more and use it as part of the final work on “Life Begins Now,” because I really want that to have a sculptural quality.

For a knitter the thread is probably expensive, but considering how little I used for this experiment — it’s not too bad for me!  I purchased my first batch from Purl Soho, and it arrived very quickly and the colors were exactly as I expected.  I love their blog, so I’m happy to be able to support them through a purchase finally!  The fabric is scrap from my favorite linen from Scarlet Letter.  I’m pretty sure it’s the “golden flax” evenweave.

Oh, if you are looking for more inspiration on how to use this amazing yarn — check out Flickr.  There’s tons of pictures of what people have been doing with it.   Stainless Steel Silk on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: habu textiles, habu yarn, stainless steel silk, fiber art, embroidery

Work in progress — this represents probably 30-40 hours of work. I’m about 1/2 way around with the “base coat” of chain stitches and french knots. I’ve really fallen in love with the varigated off-white perle cotton. Thank goodness for “Create For Less” so I can buy it bulk. I love the subtle shifts in color that it gives the piece. Yes, it’s really subtle.

I really love the sculptural quality this is taking on.  It’s what I was going for.  I think I’m going to use “stainless steel silk” as the accent material.  I’ve been experimenting with it, and I think it will really help provide the sculptural finish and sense of life.

Technorati Tags: fiber art, embroidery, tambour stitch, WIP, embroidered prayers

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