07.28.10
Posted in Stitching Genres at 7:00 am by deRomilly
The Design in Question
One of the things I’ve been doing in this heat is reading out of print Victorian needlework books on my kindle — doing research for new crewel designs and new embroidery designs in general.
The other day i was happily bouncing through Ada Wentworth’s Jacobean Embroidery, its Forms and Fillings, Including Late Tudor, when I came across this description of a bed hanging or valance:
…measuring about 5ft. 8in. in length, and 1 ft. 8in. in width. Each leaf was about 22 in. long and 19 in. across.
I did a double-take. The length and depth of the work made sense to me, but the sheer size of each leaf amazed me. Crewel work today, even when “reproduction” work, is so much smaller in design? Can you imagine the detail and stitch variety available in just one of those leaves?
I’m going to need to reevaluate my understanding of this needlework genre. The largest leaf I have ever seen modernly is about 5 inches long – and that was considered huge. Working them so much larger, and in a heavier tapestry weight wool would make it much quicker to stitch a set of bed hangings than i have been imagining. I know the smaller designs existed as well – I’ve seen some of them. But my mind is still boggling from the idea of this scale… Maybe that shower curtain is in my future after all… I could use superwash sock yarn instead of crewel wool and it would be washable! …. hmmmm.
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07.26.10
Posted in General at 10:48 am by deRomilly
Squished Car
Welcome to post 200 – wherein I cheer that I’ve made it this far, plan for the future, and whinge a it (but only a bit) about my last month.
200 posts, a couple of years, lots of stitching, knitting and dancing, and wow! Obviously I am not the most consistent blogger, though I do love sharing what I learn and what I stitch — life often intervenes in my plans to do so.
The short whinge – this month has seen negotiations for a new day job sputter (not necessarily a bad thing), the AC in my studio die during a heat wave, and it hasn’t yet been fixed because the EO was in a car accident and we’ve been more concerned about fixing him than the AC (he’s doing well, thank you). that last part also means that I’ve been doing quite a bit of chauffeuring to doctors and to work, or being without my own transporatation during the day.
On the other hand, I’ve also gotten a lot of planning and writing (though not blog posts) done.
And I have a question for you, lovely readers, going forward — what do YOU want to see in this blog? More tutorial stitch alongs? more detail on how I design? Dance? “How to shimmy?” What I’m currently stitching? antics of cats? I’ve got more ideas than I know what to do with, and knowing what you like helps me narrow it down to things that are helpful for you!
Email me or leave a comment – I love to hear from stitchers and dancers in any way, shape or form.
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07.02.10
Posted in Artwork at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Some of my hand-carved stamps
I admit it… I’m a craft dilettante!
I was, several years ago, trying to integrate my rubber stamping hobby into my textile art. I loved the depth it gave backgrounds, and being able to use the stamps themselves as designs to stitch.
Then I ran into a problem. I had too many pieces to keep for myself, and, frankly, I didn’t just want to give them away to relatives and friends who might or might not appreciate them. (I have been asked on occasion, why would you want to do that by hand when a machine is so much faster? !) So it would be nice to sell some of my art.
Unfortunately for the situation, though not in the long run, copyright law applies to stamp designs (and needlework patterns, and designs in books, and coloring books… and a lot more, too!) You might think this is silly, since stamps are tools to make art, but how you are licensed and allowed to use the images you stamp varies by company to company. My stamp collection sometimes doesn’t specify company any more. Many of the stamps I have date from before I went looking for “angel” companies who allow you to sell your hand-stamped work. Even angel companies have different policies regarding how or whether you notify them. Prints of artwork created are generally not allowed, although this can be negotiable. I didn’t want to have to go to the bother of tracking down the specific policy of each and every stamp I owned, and then keeping all the paperwork needed to prove I was in compliance – and what if I made art that just came out so cool that I thought notecards made from it as prints would be neat? Out of luck.
I decided that the easiest thing for me, was just not to use commercial stamps at all any more. Enter learning to carve my own (which has, in turn, led to woodcarving as an actual hobby {I didn’t think I was capable of hobbies any more!})… Did I ever mention that I play with WAAAY too many crafts? Maybe this blog should be Craft Dilettante! instead of Stitching with a Shimmy!
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06.28.10
Posted in Design Theory at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Color experiment
Color has always been tough for me… I tend to use analogous color schemes — like yellow-green, green and green-blue, so I can avoid the entire issue!
Color experiment
But I spent quite a bit of time learning – once you can pair value (how light or dark an area is) with color-brightness and contrast, and complimentary colors, the world opens up. I play with all of this in paint first these days – no intention of creating finished or resolved work from them, just little experiments in what works and why, and my color choices in threads need to be ripped out much less now, although I have discovered that what works in thread on a small scale may not work when enlarged — for example, three colors that work as a small face don’t necessarily work together when enlarged to an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of work. This seems to happen more in thread than in paint for me, at least right now. Still working that out.
Color experiment
I’ve been trying to learn this academically for a long while now – but the more I read, or even pushed buttons for (online resources follow) the less I understood. It finally took getting a bunch of cheap acrylic paint and doing it myself to actually grok it. My experiments may be ugly, but they did what they were intended to do! (I used quite a few of them as backgrounds in my journal, or I’d post more of the photos here.)
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06.23.10
Posted in General at 3:04 pm by deRomilly
I’ve been writing on another site a lot about Help files, and reading the manual, and learning new software. It got me to thinking about how and where I go for help with needlework these days.
Now that we have fewer and fewer local needlework stores around, I wonder, what are people doing when they have a problem, or can’t figure something out in a chart?
My response was, for many years, find an expert. And I could usually pop over to the local needlework store, where there was an entire staff and customer base of experts. Sometimes they were confused by the strange things I asked (I was never into doing things the “normal” way: usually I wanted information on medieval or 18th century techniques, and there weren’t as many resources then as now…), but I never had a time where by brainstorming between a group of us we couldn’t come up with a solution. Now, though?
Where do I go to solve problems or learn something totally new?
- My local EGA chapter, which, unfortunately, has also been dwindling in size. It’s time to renew my membership – I’ve been away too long.
- A group of friends who also stitch – if one of us can’t figure it out, usually someone else, or all ofus together can.
- Workshops. This usually entails travel these days, and a lot of the lovely big conventions are gone
(CATS comes to mind…)
- But you know, I also still go hang out at the needlepoint shop, even though I rarely do canvas work (I DO clean them out of threads regularly, though!) And I’m starting to think I need to make the 40 mile trek to my only remaining not-so local cross stitch store more often.
What do you do for needlework companionship and help these days?
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