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







Showing posts with label hand stitch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hand stitch. Show all posts

Thursday, March 15, 2012

fragile....




A small sample I made for the girls on 'extending embellishment'' ....and yes, they have seen it. I am gathering quite a collection of samples and am now trying to decide how I would like to keep them. Some kind of book perhaps or maybe a large sheet, small samples mounted in a visibly appealing way. I haven't decided yet but I do need to do something more permanent with them because at the moment they are all over the dining table....it's only a matter of time before they encounter gravy!! Swiftly followed by a divorce and a breakdown....
I seem to be getting later and later posting my blog...in terms of time of day. That's probably because my mornings are  mostly spent with a video camera these days and before I know it we are in the afternoon. I don't know that it matters...does it? I'm also thinking that you haven't seen a video for a while too....well not one of mine anyway...and then last Sunday I found  something extra, extraordinary.....don't know if it's video worthy but I do think you would be interested....am I brave enough though? That's the question.....


Saturday, October 29, 2011

paper and thread....





Something a little different for you today. Well it is paper and I do put a lot of that on here too but I didn't want anyone to get bored looking at embroidery and cloth so I am trying to keep you awake as it where. These have been on here before in an earlier stage. Since then I have added hand stitch and pricking. I originally made these as stand alone sketchbook pages and wasn't sure what to do with them after that. They are comprised of machine stitched paper, collage and wrapped threads. I have a little stash of machine stitched paper, some from ages ago and I tend to make a little more when the machine is up for something else. I wasn't certain they were finished and coming across them again recently I decided I wanted to hand sew onto them so that is what I have done. 
I'm not guaranteeing they are going to be finished before I go away but I had the urge to work on them last night and so far have added some French knots, some running stitch and some pricking along an edge. I know for sure that I won't be working on these tonight. Tonight I want to finish the bumpy section of cloth I showed you yesterday....hopefully you will see that tomorrow.