05.27.09
Posted in Design Theory at 8:52 pm by deRomilly
With summer well on its way, here in NC – (I saw my first fireflies today. They never cease to send me into a fit of wonder.) insects are suddenly on my mind again. (The 8 mosquito bites just from planting a melon vine yesterday don’t help keep my mind away from insects, either!
Gardens and their denizens have been favorites of embroiderers for centuries. Spiders and their webs hold pride of place in crazy quilt blocks. In the renaissance and Tudor embroideries, all manner of creepy crawlies appear among the flowers.
But did you know that bellydancers also have a love-hate relationship with the creepy-crawlies? Costumes have been decorated with sparkly versions of butterflies, dragonflies, and so on — usually things with wings (although leaving hte garden mataphor for a moment there have been some unfortunate run-ins with seafood and misplaced, disembodied hands, but hopefully those are rare…)
What interests me is the fact that it seems to be very difficult to do insects on bellydance costumes in a less-than-tacky manner. Butterflies with bra cups for wings, usually made out of those sequinned camisoles that were so popular back in the day (Camisoles and tops that I often love on their own, with a pencil skirt by the way…). Dragonflies on the belt with the body vertical in… umm… suggestive locations. It’s all been done. And often in beautifully executed sequin embroidery.
I have an idea for a garden/insect costume myself, despite the current “thou shalt not even go there” attitude that has developed from the above sad costume choices. Wish me luck — I’ll probably need it. 
But I’ve got other costumes to develop first… and I have GOT to get back to beading that turquoise bedlah I’ve been documenting here!
Permalink
02.09.09
Posted in Contests/Challenges at 11:13 am by deRomilly
Over the years I have noticed a tendency I’ve had to gravitate toward a specific color set in all my work. I struggle with this and have always attempted to buy thread and try to design outside my comfort zone.
This does not always work. While I have used more yellows and oranges over the years, blue, green and purple still overwhelms them in my stash and work. And always will, I suspect. Sometimes I don’t even notice the other colors around me. Even the acrylic painting I started last week turns out to have a predominance of blue and green!
Do you wear this kind of color blinders, too?
Over the next seven weeks I’ve decided to challenge myself to find the colors around me. One week, one color, until I’ve worked through the whole rainbow. This week I’m starting with red. I’m going to try to take photos of what I find in my life in these colors as I go and post them here on Saturday morning.
Want to play with me? Post photos to your blog or flickr account and then post the link in the comments when I post my photos on Saturdays.
This will be a short week, since I’m just starting, but since this Saturday is Valentine’s day, RED should be easy enough to find around us.
Come explore our colorful world with me!
Permalink
12.29.08
Posted in Stitching Genres at 7:00 am by deRomilly
I finally named my big huge sampler pattern – it will be Tramatina when it is released. And after I named it I promptly forgot why I named it that. I do remember that it’s a combination of the names of some very complicated friends. Unfortunately, I’ve had a big setback on that front. And it’s all my own fault. This is me being very depressed about this:
This is the sampler in question – see? I’ve made LOTS of progress! Two pages out of 18 already stitched. Yeah. Right. I AM really proud of this. It looks better stitched than it did as a bitmap on the computer! Unfortunately, one of those pages has to be entirely ripped out.
This is why. See that red circle? That’s the spot where I left out a little line of three cross stitches. Just three blinking stitches. In the first motif I stitched. And I didn’t even notice. The EO noticed on Christmas that the balancing motif didn’t look like the first one. He’s proud of himself for noticing. Actually, I’m glad too. It could have been so much worse. If this was for me – if it was a true sampler and not something I think I might want to put on the cover of the pattern, I’d just fudge it. But it isn’t. Because I based all of my counting on the location of stitches in that motif, everything in the sampler is off by one row vertically and three several horizontally, too. So I’m frogging the thing. That’s going to take time, and I have to admit I’ve been really tempted to just pull out another yard of linen and start completely over.
The thing that really grates on me? I made a conscious decision not to grid the thing because it was so big. I look at it now and realize I could have gridded it in page-sized pieces. A grid on the fabric would have saved me most of this grief, because none of the stitches would have lined up on the fabric grid where they do in the pattern grid. I hate the prep work for stitching. I am very tempted to skip it. And every time I skip it I regret it. Hopefully this will teach me. It better, because it’s a very painful lesson.
Permalink
10.21.08
Posted in Dance at 8:05 pm by deRomilly
So my dance troupe is putting together a new piece — and I “get” to make my own costume. Now usually this is a good thing — but usually it’s not a full traditional bra and belt set that I have to make in three months!
So. I have a bra to use as a base. My theme is “water.” I decided that I didnt’ have time to bead the fringe myself, although I have an appropriate pice started – it’s just going to have to go on another costume because I’m not going to have time to finish it.
I found on ebay a set of 5 and 8 inch Egyptian beaded fringe in turquoise and snagged it. It’s not quite what I’d call turquoise – it has a greyish quality to it, but it will work. I also found two turquoise/teal valances at BigLots for $3.00 each. Bought them, too. Yes, I am planning on working the beaded edge they came with into the design as well…
The fringe and valance (click to embiggen by lots!):
I’m going to cover my bra – I’ll actually have to start from scratch on the belt, which means that the shape is completely up to me! Great, yet more decisions. I think I’ll just use one I’ve got and that fits as a pattern.
So. The idea is currently to cover the bra and belt in the valance fabric: put a row of fringe across the bra at the bustline, and sequin/bead above that. The belt, because I get to start the design from scratch – will probably have a dip in the front, fringe around the bottom, and sequinning in easy wave patterns around.
I have a mottled evening blue silk skirt from a current performance, and am toying with the idea of adding a silk gauze overskirt in green & white dappling to make it look even more like water.
So. That’s the basic design. You’re actually not getting all the thoughts on it, because I’ve been wanting both a turquoise cosume and a water costume for a couple of years now. I’m combining two ideas into one, although in the long run I still want my ocean costume that’s dripping with glass fringe, swarovski crystal and pearls! (Yes, I’m already collecting the expensive parts for it!)
Permalink
