Karen Ruane

scraps becoming sample pieces

Last night I played a little. I took a scrap of stitched cloth and a scrap of stitched paper and wondered how they might live together. Here's the result. It's quite small, 6 x 5 inches....it's precious, delicate, light as a feather too. There are French knots embroidered using pale pink silk thread. There are bullion knots with matt gold bead added to them as a finishing touch and there is a strip of vintage pom pom trim forming the seam between the two pieces used to create this. Matt gold beads are also suspended across an open area.

The area with the patterned cloth, that has a paper base. The other, whiter area is silk Habotai. A tiny piece of this broke away from the main body, you can see that in the top corner of the second image. That tiny piece may well find its way onto a ledger  page..............

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Two little embroidered samples, the first pages for my new ledger, my new artist book idea. Hooks and eyes, beads, bullion knots, coton a broder, silk thread, silk velvet, metallic silk tissue and stitched paper....

My collection of stitched papers is growing rapidly, I now have piles of it. Piles of stitched paper and mountains of cloth scraps equals inspiration. There's no excuse for not being creatively charged now, I best keep going , crack on while the oomph is there.

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considering ledgers

I'm in the early stages of creating new ledgers, new artist books. This time I'm playing with a different construction, a more open format which will allow the pages to be filled without preventing the ledger closing....at least that's the plan. At the moment most of the pages are bare. One has a little paper bead, another has a small textured, stitched paper collage and here you can see a little embroidery happening on silk velvet which will be used for another page.

I will soon be working to a similar theme in ''embroidery school'' too...lots of composition on paper, pages, (a different size to these) paper sheets and paper samples for my London cake day. Cloth won't be forgotten though, you have my word.

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ingredients for a pocket - Karen Ruane

and then there were two.... - Karen Ruane

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embroidery school

You would be forgiven for thinking  I had abandoned cloth, that because of the amount of paper based work I have shown on here recently I had given all my cloth away, was no longer in the habit of practising embroidery on fabric. Wrong.....and here's the proof, a small sampler taking shape over in embroidery school. It still needs work, lots of titivation still needs to happen but I love how it's evolving. Pretty Liberty prints , beads and hand embroidery stitches along with octagons and hexagons. I haven't yet decided what comes next for this surface but I'm in no hurry as we are soon to be distracted by paper in class too...... 

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a new pocket taking shape

Liberty fabric, paper, octagons.

 

A look back at the past week or so....lots of things going on mostly with paper and Liberty fabric. The Liberty fabric is playing a part in ''embroidery school''. Tomorrow I will show you some of my work from there, I've been stitching happily on white with little bits of patterned cloth.

The post man brought me some new threads to play with this week, the memory thread. He also brought me a beautiful piece of lace, a gift...(last image) I do love my post man!

 

a collection of surfaces and a possibility for a new ledger

My collection of surfaces for ledgers, for embroidery, for collage and design sheets is growing. It's a good thing to have variety, to have different choices but I need to start focusing. I need to choose a few of these, decide on the most appropriate pieces and then create ten of each for workshop packs. 

Of course I will have other uses for these, one of those being as inserts, pages, compositions for some artist books I wish to put together. Yesterday I played with a new format for those little books. My test piece is here in these images. I think it will work but first I need to work on some pages to see how it responds to that, how the weight and volume of samples and stitch affects how this ledger sits, how it opens and closes.

 

There is a short Instagram video showing these surfaces here.

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bullion knots with blue and white

In my quest to continue with the type of work I showed you yesterday I have been titivating a scrap of stitched paper. Pieces like this need a stock of scraps to pull from...that is what this is. It's quite therapeutic to stitch a row of bullion knots onto collaged, stitched paper. The surface is obviously very different to cloth yet it has it's own unique appeal. 

I have plans for a lot more work like the piece I showed you yesterday. More collage needs to be put together, more paper needs to be stitched to scraps of fabric. There is new lace on order for a lace cloth/paper combo I wish to make too so prepare yourself for quite a few ''scrappy, paper, collage'' posts over the next ten days or so.

Cloth hasn't been completely abandoned, don't worry. There is embroidery on cloth happening in ''embroidery school'' and I hope to give you a glimpse of that sometime soon. We have been open for almost a week now. You're not too late to join us if you'd like to be part of a wonderful group of creative people.  There is more information here.

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paper

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blue and white French knots with gridded paper

Yesterday afternoon was very productive......an idea was formed and this is the result. This is almost 100 percent what I have been aiming for, what I could partially visualise yet couldn't seem to get all the pieces together. Hopefully I'm off now, on a roll, will be able to create more of these with different colours, different papers, different snippets of cloth along with a few stitches....

This morning I made a video for ''embroidery school''. I talked this through with my group. It helped. (you will be getting that video shortly girls) Chatting about stuff.....it always helps even if you're only talking to yourself.

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lace cloth, another page, a video.

more paper play

The long narrow strip here is a continuation of play from yesterday. It's more focused though,  I'm clearer with regard to where I am going with all this. Ledgers are being revisited and laid alongside the new work....more ideas for combining aspects of both. The same applies to the embroidered sample here....all these pieces are ideas I want to combine, mix and match and take forward to create finished paper and cloth works. 

The plan now is to create more delicate collaged and stitched papers, add cloth to some, stitch on selected areas, maybe add beads, gimp, tiny scraps of silver....I then hope to have a mass of sheets, pages and ledger inserts....

moving sampling forward....

Stitch has been added to a paper sample and one of my pillow tops from here has been commandeered and added to a paper sample...all in the name of sampling, moving things forward, testing.....trying to light the spark which will take me to the next step.

In truth I already know what I want to create...and it isn't pillows. I just don't want to be predictable or boring but I guess I make what I make and that's why you come here right? I need to be making samples and workshop materials for our London cake day yet those samples are getting eaten up by my playing. Maybe if I satisfy my need to play I can create samples after that.

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presentation....

gathering....