January Take it Further Challenge

10:22 AM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Here are photos of my progress in the January Take it Further challenge. Earlier I posted my design sketch and info about my source materials and yesterday my camera came home so... Here's where I am so far - now that it is no longer January!

I've had a bit of frustration with the colors here - obviously, I need to take the time to re-calibrate my color balance on the camera. The actual embroidery is not quite as yellow as the first picture nor quite as blue as the second picture. The detail photo is close but not quite right, either.









I have been using satin stitch for the foundations of the ruins here and french knots and some modified satin stitch for the ground/foliage around them. I'm loving the textural detail but am feeling a bit daunted about the remaining amount of empty space in the composition. I'm leaning toward leaving a lot of it as is and formulating some elegant border and corner motifs.
I do like that the texture in this work looks like organic growth super-imposed on a man made structure - much like a forest overgrown into the ruins of an ancient fortress - which was the whole point! Another part of my bewilderment over what to do with the open areas right now is how to fill in the empty spaces without using too much satin stitch - which would look like more ruins instead of grass or foliage as seen from the air. Maybe I sketch some color on with colored pencils or something? I don't dare use textile paint or dye at this point because I don't want anything to get on the embroidery. Any suggestions?

Look for Round Robin photos in the next day or so - those are finally done and just await a good pressing .

Being patient with myself in January

8:31 PM Posted In , , Edit This 2 Comments »
Well, here we are halfway and more through January and when I look around myself, I feel that I've not accomplished a single thing. If you were to come to my house you would probably think that we had some sort of minor disaster this month. Dirty dishes are piled high in the kitchen, clean laundry is escaping from the Pack-n-Play in the study because the main closet is messy and the laundry baskets are full, general chaos reigns in the Living Room, the stairway really needs to be swept . . . Unless you fail to keep house the way that I fail to keep house, you probably can't begin to imagine the mess.

But my studio is still clean! And I taught a beading class this week; a feat that included 15 hours of writing instructions and illustrations. And I've completed my initial sketch for my take it Further Challenge project. And my toddler is finally getting ready to potty train (maybe). And we are catching up with our home school schedule.

All of this in a week where I suffered from lack of sleep, associated headaches and the major disappointment of breaking my camera.

I am posting here and on Flickr my plans for the Take it Further Challenge. I borrowed a book a few months ago from our Arts Council "Library" titled Embroidery and Architecture by Jan Messent. The book was published in 1985, before color printing became affordable for arts and crafts books but the book is by no means boring for lack of color. Jan Messent includes historical information about how architecture has been used as design fodder for embroiderers and textile artists for centuries and then goes on to explore specific architectural elements from ground plans to doors and windows and how they can be incorporated in embroidered art work. She includes many many amazing and beautiful drawings and photos of both architectural elements and embroidered textile works using these themes. On page 38 of the book is an aerial view of a ruined castle that caught my attention the first time I picked the book up. I scanned this illustration, enlarged it and played around with adding some colored pencil in the colors from January's challenge. My plan is to embroider the wall sections with satin stitch and then use some dimensional stitches, like French knots for the ground areas. Since this is one of the first embroidery projects I've taken on in a planned out way, I'm going in with very low expectations and a willingness to experiment and have fun with the design. Who knows if the finished piece will look anything like I'm imagining it will? Who cares?

Well, here are the photos and the Flickr challenge pool site so interested parties may take a look at what everyone else is doing for this challenge. Unfortunately, the threads I have chosen do not show well in the scan. I really miss my camera and anxiously await its return from the repair center.
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