Sunday, March 18, 2007

new blogger and PLS Week 4

hmmmm, not sure about being forced to go to the new blogger having resisted various blandishments for months. sniffing around the new parameters.....

for what it's worth here is my piece for week four of personal library of stitches (apologies for the quality of the photos - the light was fading. the lighter photo is more true to colour)


it is a piece of the original dublin linen whose whiteness i found so overwhelming - it was dyed with blue and rose pink food colouring, rolled in bubblewrap and left in the autumn sun for a day. after reading the lesson and this article on the British artist Gitl Wallerstein-Braun (who does beautifully lyrical folded pieces) i decided to go with the folds in the fabric and see where the stitching lead me. last week i did a similar thing with the silk paper following the natural contours of the piece.

i don't think i ever "got" this piece - it doesn't seem to have a focus or movement - it's quite diffuse. but given the complexities of my life at the moment i decided to go with what was evolving on the fabric and not stress too much about creating something marvellous. instead i had fun with the stitching (learning some new stitches - feathered chain, buttonhole bar - which is a great alternative to bullion stitch), whipped herringbone and a kind of detached chain/fly stitch hybrid that i decided to retrieve from being a mistake and enjoy the effect.

i used perle 5 cotton, cotton embroidery floss, silk ribbon, silk floss (indian splendour again - i just love that thread) and some rachelette that i got from joggles this week (amazing service - it arrived from the States within a week of my order)

the two things that struck me this week were:
  1. the use of space is as important as the use of thread
  2. the treatment or disposition of the fabric (ie pleats, folds etc) can (should?) dictate the stitch

2 comments:

ACey said...

think it's quite lovely. I was that way about the points lesson. Not sure at all that I 'got" that one ...

Susan said...

Looks to me like another piece worth framing. Think it looks quite feminine and botanical