Category: embrilting

Posted in embrilting, in progress, Natural Dyes, Samara

winging it

Posted on by arlee

Because this is a large work, it’s a bit problematic sometimes to work AS a large piece: you have to shuffle around the whole thing, pinning it into folds so you can have access to the area you’re working on, making sure you don’t stitch one section to another, or to your pants, dragging cat and dog hair into the mix, and having room to manouevre it. On the other hand, cut up like this (because i wanted different effects with the natural dyes for each area), it flops around loosely, and the tension is hard to maintain.

This means both wings and the figure have to be finished, and then attached to the backing fabric they’re going on, and then *that* has to be attached to the rest of the floppy piece. I auditioned several fabrics to be the backing fabric, and because none are big enough for the whole area behind the wings and the figure–and i didn’t want all the sections that show to be the same anyways, i’ll have to do more stitching on those thin visible slices as well, to “blend” the joins. EDIT: i just realized i can back the wings and figure as one piece, work the “background” large area, THEN attach all the parts together.

I auditioned several fabrics: Indigo–WHOA, lovely but too bright–and i don’t have enough for both wings, even pieced behind where you can’t see the joins. It also wastes this indigo piece, as most of the patterning on it would be hidden. If i was going to use indigo then, i would have chosen a more solid dye job.

 

“Filler” cloth, deliberately designed for backgrounds or  for “fussy cutting”. Nope. Motifs too small, too scattered, too much white.

Rust, maybe too “linear”, too “white”.

Velvets naturally dyed in the last week. Too much?

Nope, as in NOT “too much”, YES as in WOW. Admittedly since dyeing these velvets, i’ve been aching to use them, but honestly i do think this really warms up the whole piece.

Though this is very haphazardly pinned on my design wall, i can really see where she’s going now. Warmer coloured threads for the paler surround are now a possibility also.

It’s been worth the 2+ years to get her going!!!!!!

Posted in embrilting, in progress, Natural Dyes, Naturally dyed threads, Samara

wing update

Posted on by arlee

One almost done!

Shooting photos in my studio at dawn makes for moody presentations, but here it is really:

Despite the flurry around the dyepots again this week, i have been stitching as much as i can. That distraction resulted in not a week of stitch, but two, though the second one will take less time due to less surface area! I’m at the point too where i can start thinking about what will be behind the wing. It can’t fight, but it can’t “disappear” either.

 

Posted in cochineal, embrilting, FybreSpace the shop, Indigo Dreams, Madder, Moons, Natural Dyes, Naturally dyed threads, osage, sandalwood

River’s Edge

Posted on by arlee

#15 in the indigo moon series, i may have lost some “serious art” readers “because apparently all i’m doing is “crafting” this year” (get on yer high horse, you know who, and ride off far away), but ya know what? I NEEDED this year to be easy, to be Small, to be, well, just mooning the world–ha!

The texture on this one is amazing, even if i do say so myself 🙂

 

Since it’s grey and cold and blowy here, i added a little bling from the embellishment stash that hasn’t seen the light of day for a looonnng while! These moons are getting bigger with this one measuring at 10″ across. (Still thinking of a HUGE indigo moon!!) And some are getting smaller, as i have a few planned in a 5″ size.

See the shop for details.

 

 

Posted in a collusion of ideas, embrilting, in progress, Natural Dyes, Samara

small stitches, big ideas

Posted on by arlee

I’ve just completed a small “commission” for someone, and happily noted that a couple of stitches i used on it can feature largely for “Samara”.

 

Samara’s wings are (with the figure of course!) the most prominent focus on this piece. I’ve been stumped about how to treat them, and had started three different ways of “illustrating” them, all to no avail. Frustrating. It meant a deadlock, because without knowing how i would work them, i had no idea how to proceed with the background. Hell, it was a gridlock!

The first two were with commercially dyed threads on the rust and natural dye cotton background, the third with all naturally dyed fabrics and threads.

I *do* like all of the ideas–just not for this piece! The first two were a bit predictable: feathers that “look” like feathers, while the third was maybe too much of a good thing with all that colour. (Stack ’em and stash ’em for future work…)

My favourite Thing too, a signature, if you will, is the use of dimension and texture in my embroidery technique. Whether it’s raised areas, or FrankenStitch ( my personal woogly boogly break-the-embroidery-rules-about-neatness-and-even-ness approach), i feel i MUST go back to that. That’s Me, that’s what my work is. The feathers above would have satisfied a bit of that, but nah, too feathery 🙂

I’m looking at this:

in conjunction with ideas from “A Birth of Silence”

and now have these to work on:

I’m hoping that i can do one a week……. the body is almost done, as it needs only minimal stitch, but the background is going to be a bear because it’s so big, and that is why it probably won’t be finished until the new year. (Day Job will be F’n  FRANTIC in December, so very very little time there…) When the first wing is done, i can also start making choices for the fabric that will show underneath at the edges.

I know this work won’t be done until into 2019, my slow pace necessary with hand work. No rush, no deadline, nothing really to add to a “Gallery 2018” page on this blog, because i’m going where i don’t know where i’m going.

Posted in Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, embrilting, in progress

a little pain, a lot of gain

Posted on by arlee

Yesterday was a “Dental Day”, and you know what that means! To keep my mind off what was going to happen, i worked on this little ecoprint. All natural dyes, all cotton, and a perfect antidote to pain and winter! Background surround is madder, madder with osage overdye, and ecoprint panel is madder and a tannin blanket, with leaves from my garden.

Shall have to photograph this in better daylight, as it’s even prettier than it is 🙂