News / Work in Progress
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May 14, 2013
Atlas Moth – Last Week’s Progress
Read more →Hello! I’m writing this post in a slight rush to get out the door for work but as I’m off tomorrow and will be doing more embroidery I didn’t want TOO much time to elapse before I shared more WIP pics! As you can see, as usual I am building this design up in stages, finer detail and blocking lines first. This has a dual purpose too, of giving me a line to anchor later satin stitch work to a sold line. If that makes sense! At this point I switched from split stitch to french knots as the wing...
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May 05, 2013
Phase 1: Atlas Moth
Read more →As always, the foundation of a piece like this is all. So this will be a relatively dry post full of boring preparation shots. But, y’know. This stuff matters. First of all, I knew how big the finished, framed size had to be, so I plotted this out on some brown paper, then added in the frame and mount sizes to give the aperture – the embroiderable (?) size. Then I laid out the individual moth patterns I made to get an idea of how they would fit on the piece. I will be embroidering the latin names of the...
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Apr 28, 2013
The Moon, the Elephant and the Atlas.
Read more →Hi everyone! Remember me? I’m still here, and I’ve not been idle. What I’m sharing with you today is some backgorund info on some amazing and beautiful creatures that I have the good fortune of having the pleasure to embroider for a lovely private commission I’ve landed. I am creating a framed piece depicting 3 of the most beautiful moths in nature. It’s funny – when I decided to start accepting commissions I was very clear I didn’t want to be an ‘embroiderer for hire’ and would only accept work on the basis that it inspired me; as such I...
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Apr 12, 2013
What a difference a day makes…
Read more →Well this is embarrassing. Ten days since my last post. Pfft. First of all lets deal with this here silk ribcage, which will go into the Midsummer Collection and which I completed on Wednesday. Then I gots some explaining to do. I filled in the rest of the shape with my fine fine machine weight silk, chose a couple of other warmer shades for the spine and added some french knot spiny processes and (you probably can’t see this but) some subtle shading lines on the under edge of each rib. Then I spent some time outlining the ribs in...
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Apr 02, 2013
Ribcage Redux
Read more →So I realise I’ve not been keeping up my one-new-design-a-week typical blogging schedule this last 2 weeks ish. This is not only because of the wonderful and long longed for distractions of things like this picture – the honestly really real life beach covered in snow and topped with azure sky scene at the (almost) bottom of my street WHERE I NOW LIVE. Sigh. It’s also not only because of distractions like Ice Cream Sundaes (yes capitalised because they are Sundaes of God-like status in my house), a soothing balm-slash-reward enjoyed slightly too frequently since moving to the seaside (FYI...
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Mar 25, 2013
Deadly Black Henbane…Part II
Read more →I have been a bit quiet this week, as far as blogging goes anyway. But the needle has been stitching away as ever, and I just finished the Black Henbane flower yesterday, so here is part 2! When I left you last week I had completed the 3 petals using detached wire slips techniques. So here is number 4; And here is the fifth and final one. In some ways this was the easy bit over, now plunging the wires into the black ground fabric one by one, to constuct the flower head. As each petal is pushed through the...
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Mar 18, 2013
Deadly Henbane – Stumpwork Part 1
Read more →This will be a post in two parts. I realised a funny thing the other day – that this (along with, I suppose, the Hawthorn Blossom) are not miniatures, but rather larger than life. This made by chuckle silently inside. I’m sad like that. Soooooo. Black Henbane. I think it is a GORGEOUS flower: And I wanted to capture all that lovely veiny detail, obvs. I decided to do a similar thing to the aforementioned Hawthorn Blossom and make detatched wired slips. And I got some nice heavy white cotton and using fine machine silk, couched it down: The little...
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Mar 11, 2013
Procrastination, Distraction, and Getting On With It.
Read more →Procrastination is the art-killer. Who said that? I did, just then. I would believe it too, up until about 4pm yesterday I was having a very unfocused day, distracted, starting things, stopping, forgetting what I was doing. All quite annoying and not very me! But then I obviously got my shit together and did most of the Crab apple you see above. Other things I did/was distracted by: Moving house chaos in the spare room (AKA My office goddamit!). More tidy and lovely light-filled lounge. So much floor space! Fox in the garden! I never seen one before. We call...
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Mar 05, 2013
Stumpwork Willow Branch
Read more →I know I seem to always say this, but I’m really pleased with the way this one turned out. When I had decided on the construction I thought that as it was going to be so simple, it might not be so effective. I also wasn’t sure about how the detached woven picots would behave as willow leaves, and whether they would give that twirly, tendril-like appearance. They are in fact infinitely poseable. I wanted to achieve with this piece that soft, falling, almost ethereal quality that white willows have in the spring. And I’m also really happy that it...
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Feb 14, 2013
Making the Birch Forest
Read more →I’m very pleased with this, but it also feels a bit ‘un-me’ in a weird way. The whole thing seems very elegant and contemporary and somehow a bit of a departure from my normal style? I dunno. What do you think? Now, the photos are as usual crappy, but I have a good excuse this time, as it’s because the embroidery is so pretty that the photos came out so shit. Because I used super fine super shiny silk thread, silver – naturally – this one in fact: The silver one on the right and the ivory one on the...