For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors .







''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''. c K. A. Ruane 2007







Tuesday, January 25, 2011

worn cloth and fine lace...

Extremely old and aged cotton with lace I made myself using very loose weave cotton scrim. Painstakingly hand joined patchwork, applique flowers, surface embroidery and raw edges.

25 comments:

Sue Krekorian said...

Beeyootiful!

deanna7trees said...

interesting, unusual and beautiful. hard to see the white on the white background. but that might just be me with my bad eyes.

arlee said...

otherwordly Karen, just awesome

Joanna said...

Just beautiful!

Jane said...

amazing

Elizabeth said...

Just decided that I cannot keep up with the many talents you have. You know how to surprise me time and again.

Suztats said...

Oh, I love, love, love this!

Tammie Lee said...

Karen these flowers are wonderful! And you made the lace, impressive. I have always loved lace and these have the spirit of webs - quite wonderful.

Brenda T said...

Beautiful work ! :) What stitch are you using to make the star shape that appears on yesterday's post (orange on the pink stripes).

Gina said...

Must as I love what you usually do this has totally wowed me Karen.

Carol said...

Ten tonnes of stunning here soooo lovey i can not express.

Karen said...

Brenda, that's a variation of spiders web stitch. I say variation because i'm sure I don't do it the way I was taught!!

Helena said...

So delicate and beautiful!!!

Ferg 'N' Jude said...

I love the sculptural forms you have created, so delicate, just stunning white on white.

Anonymous said...

Yet more marvels! The lace is so delicate!

Claire said...

Ohhh loverly :-)

Anonymous said...

There is an ineffable quality of elegant timelessness about this piece - how completely beautiful!

:) Linda

Thea said...

Beautiful! I love that you're breathing new and exciting life into some old cotton, which was just hanging about, waiting to be loved.

Johoanna Robson said...

This is simply divine.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

All I can say is 'oh'. My jaw has struck the keyboard as it dropped open in sheer awe.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I think I'm speechless.

Heartwideopen said...

OMG, drop dead gorgeous! I LOVE it, I WANT it!!!!!!!!!

;-) Debi

Things Hand Made said...

Lush... rally like those

Angela said...

beautiful!

jan b. said...

WOW !!!