Because sometimes, small can be big.
Category: embrilting
a serious love affair
Such sunshine from this one pot of Osage Orange! Bought from Maiwa, a dependable, high wash and light fast dye made from wood chips, it’s such an antidote to the grey smokey skies we’ve had for the last three (?more? seems like it…) weeks. My tansy results were poor again this year, not sure why since i followed the same recipe i always have, one i always got good results from, but not in the last two years. Locally, as i have mentioned before, the soldiago/goldenrod is sadly a stunted, mingy little plant, that i now leave alone, for pollinators. Weld is spendy, though highly rated, but the budget allows for Osage in plenitude.
I’m building up a stock of these fabrics, for overdyeing, for playing with post modifiers, for shibori and because i have little yellow in any form in my stash!
And greens too!
Having fun working on these as well, for little projects! The threads here are osage, sandalwood, walnut and indigo, or blends thereof, on osage over indigo over madder, all cottons 🙂
Just a hint too, there is only today and tomorrow left for my 8th anniversary sale in the shop. Enter 8AFS in the discount box (and make sure you click on the little black circle to add it), to receive 20% off EVERYTHING in the shop, sale items and art included. Someone remarked my shipping prices were too high, BUT i ALWAYS refund any differences in what you paid and what the actual postage is at the post office. One cannot guess at weights and costs to other countries/continents, but one does one’s best to be fair. I’m sure you’re all familiar with packages that you paid 15bucks to have shipped to you, and when it arrives, the post stamp clearly says it only cost 4.95……
I’m just mad about Osage
Osage’s mad about me
I’m just mad about Osage
She’s just mad about meThey call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
Paraphrased 🙂
just a day
Here’s proof that pink calms dragons as well 🙂 He then flew onto my shoulder to say hello, before he went off on business.
How can one ignore inspiration from one’s own garden? It wasn’t just the yellow shouting of these Ligularia flowers, it was the indigo shadows underneath as well, due in part to the smoke still hanging here.
somebody gimme a hand
Heard of seam allowances, arlee? Heard of testing specific design precepts, arlee? Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Now we have particularly skinny fingers. The question is: do i leave them like this and go for the “naive” look, or do i unroll the edges and stitch down flat?
OOps: here it it flat (thumb unfinished at time of photo)
mining the past again
That’s a page from a 2007 “fabric art journal”, a time for me of experimenting and heavy machine embroidery. “Kirlian Hand” is a portrayal of the so-called phenomena of a person’s “aura”. Named after Semyon Kirlian’s accidentally discovered observation in 1939, that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a high-voltage source, an image is produced on the photographic plate—- and touted in the 70’s as captures of the human spirit! (My ex was heavily into this, Hollow Earth theory, pyramid power, Chariots of the Gods alien conspiracy, and the whole “new age” crapola of the time….used to drive me nuts…but then *he* was/is.)
Anyhoo, i did like the design possibilities of this, so wth. The hand was cut from screen printed fabric, all of the embroidery is by free motion and the abalone shell piece was attached with glue and beads (i think..the page is somewhere in a box with other relics of the time, in a little room at the back of the house so stuffed i can’t get into it. Note to self: do something about that this weekend, there’s some Good Stuff in there too…)
It’s interesting to look at old work and not only remember how and why it was done, but to go forward with it as well, in a new direction. Yeah, some of the results from the way back machine are either embarrassing or weak, but some of it is still valid, good, intriguing, and touches a chord. Let’s roll with it!
As i mentioned in a previous post, i’m working on improving my ecoprinting skills, and while my little tests are very quite promising, i’m not completely satisfied yet, BUT, i can still use some of the bits in the Summer of Madder Study project 🙂 I’m going to “condense” the above layout a bit, due to the size of the moon i want to use, because the original layout would make too big a section to work on comfortably, considering the scale.
I’ll have to be tender with the moon too: a silk, i always have problems with stitching on this fabric, by hand or machine, as the threads of the fabric tend to “pull” when the needle goes through. I’ve tried finer threads, and smaller eye bulbed needles, but haven’t solved the mystery yet, so minimal stitching on the moon. Given though that the details are so fine and so delicious, less is more anyways: not everything has to be encrusted!
And the potential layout–just pretend/imagine the fingers are separate so the moon shines through 🙂
It’s now time then to set up the outside stitching corner!
Summer of Madder section 1 done
A pile of two finished pieces, however small, is still a pile :), as the pocket is here.
The next section will be “whole cloth”, rather than pieced/collaged.
wings
Admittedly, i overthought this section, but i’m happy anyways with the results (still in progress). The idea/execution however is getting a bit *too* “figurative”! It’s time to think of texture and effect as well as the “embrilting”.
As soon as i finished the wing on the upper right figure, i flashed back to 2014, when i was working on “The Weight She Carries”. At the time, though i wanted redder madders than i was getting, i used synthetic dyes (Procion/Rit/Dylon, whatever was in the drawer) to get a range of reds. (The coral/peach “puffs” in the photo are the madder results i was getting at that time.) The feathers on this wing are a textural smorgasbord, and perhaps i can draw from these, literally, in shape, and figuratively, in feel.
I could see wings on the back of this garment, but that might be a bit much! I can’t/don’t want to make them smaller to fit in a section either, as they would be too fiddly to work, and would lose the point and effect. Perhaps a few scattered?
embroidery finished on pocket!
I just have to add some beading, and a bit of vintage lace (also madder dyed 🙂 ), a top band and then can move on to other parts of the garment.
I think it’s wonderful that all shades on this, except for the greens, are from various mordants and modifiers with madder on cotton (background), and wool, silk and cotton threads.
I *like* getting madder!
looking rosey
I do love this detail.
They were a bit naked without the leaves, so dipping into the stash, i found a bit more of my naturally dyed greens.
Of course, as it so often happens when one falls in love with something, the supplies run out…. I have very limited quantities of these wools, because i “never use them”—-HA! Fortunately, i found a small ball undyed, so guess what i’m doing today? (Yes, i hear you groaning “oh fer…more damn madder dyeing….”) AND i have to dye more greens as well, as *that* part of the stash is also very low.
gonna rock some pockets
Most women’s garments just don’t have pockets, or real, decent pockets. I’m tired of jeans with fake ones (a cop-out “detail” at its worst–who’s looking at me that cares if it looks like a pocket if it isn’t????????), tired of ones that are too small, or so small and deep that you can’t get anything in, but if you do, you can’t get it back out, ones that don’t lie flat, ones that twist, ones that are placed too high, too low or impossible to find behind your back, and pockets that quickly develop holes.
I have SO many ideas for this Summer Madder Project garment, too many maybe, or maybe enough that there could be a couple of pieces! As things go in, (some delicate vintage lace now! and more threads!) and things come out of the madder pot (hopefully, an even deeper red), i thought one best start somewhere, so pockets, pockets it is. I want capacious, generous baggy pockets, suitable for gathering leaves, stuffing monies in and snacks, carrying lost journals, lost kittens, injured birds, rocks, whatever: pockets should be able to comfortably CARRY things. That’s their function, truly. And if these don’t work as pockets, then they become small bags!
I’ve used similar little figures before, but since i plan on using them scattered around, the above are newly “designed” ones, along with 4 others not shown. Previous incarnation of the originals is here. (There will be other motifs as well, but these are a good start.)
Since this project when done will have to be washed by hand (due to natural dye Ph considerations), i’m not hesitating to mix silk/wool, wool, silk, and cotton threads, and fabrics in silk and cotton. The range of colours is more enticing on all the different fibres than using just cellulose or just protein fabrics and threads. The original plan was to create a “top” from a Tina Givens pattern, and i’m still going to use that (minus the ruffle, and lengthened a bit), but given that most of my embroidery is done with a flannel backing, this is going to have to be lined somehow, to hide the flannel and protect the reverse of the stitches. That means it’s a bit “heavier” than normal summer wear, but given that our nights here in the summer are a lot cooler than elsewhere, due to our altitude, that’s perfectly acceptable. I will however be using a thinner flannel than normal. I *could* use a finer cotton as a backing, but then the effect that stitching on a backing like flannel is lost–and that’s what my work is about, that added little dimension and depth. That’s why, for years, i’ve called it “embrilting” 🙂
As i’ve thought of the stitching itself, i’ve also come to the decision that more dimension will be “needed” as well, to personalize this to me. I might be going overboard, but time and effort will tell!
albedo too 
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