Yesterday I spoke about other artist books which were coming together in class. This is one of those or should I say this is a page from one of those. I'm considering this one finished now, complete. I may swap the gold ribbon though, I am thinking about it. I have some 'duck egg' ribbon ordered and when that arrives I will try that there. It's a white ribbon with the slightest hint of blue in it....I think it may live better here than the gold.
There are four other pages which form this book, some of them can be seen here and there are overlays too. It's going to have a beautiful weight to it when all the pages, overlays and layers are joined and placed in the cover.
The white book. It's been in progress for months. It was always going to be in progress for months, a slow burner, not rushed. It's a 'playtime' book added to as and when the inspiration strikes. On Sunday we added more over on the 12 month artist book class. There is just one more page to titivate and this one will be finished. There is embroidered paper and lace. There are scraps of fragile white cloth stitched to ribbons and buttons. Our class motto is 'never throw anything away', it's amazing what you can do with all those little remnants of paper and cloth.
It doesn't close. That's the best thing about it. The pages are always visible, a glance inspires and hints at other creative ideas. I love it. Can you tell?
I have started another one. There are also other books being put together on the 12 month artist book blog. By the end of September I hope to have a personal collection of six artist books in various forms which have been put together over this year.
(Registration for the 12 month artist book blog remains open until September. If you think you can bear to never throw anything away then come and join us. You can read more here.)
Twenty five inch strips of silk, lace and paper. Twenty five inch rows of bullion knots, French knots, buttonhole stitch and chain stitch. A partially stitched row of twenty five inches of hooks and eyes. One twenty five inch edge of buttonhole stitch still to complete along with those hooks and eyes before this piece is finished.
They are waiting for me to finish this embroidery over on the 12 month artist book blog. It's an essential component of one of our pieces, yes one of our artist books. I'm on it....just the areas I mentioned left to do girls and we will be good to go. The French knots took an age....I can't count how many of those there are, they were the hold up. Having said that I am more than happy they are there. They allow for altered texture and altered weight across the whole piece. It just wouldn't be the same without them.
Looking back to when you first saw this here it doesn't look massively different today. You are just going to have to trust me when I say there have been hours and hours more embroidery added to this since then.
This piece has moved on quite a bit since you last saw it here. It's ready for the lining now which will consist of cloth strips on to which embroidered samples can be pinned. Yes another cloth sample book in progress.....they are becoming a bit of an addiction. It's tiny, only around eight by seven inches when folded into book form.
I'm going to put the lining together today and this may well be finished in a couple of days being as how it's so tiny.
Meanwhile my London embroidery is almost finished. I have the edges of one embroidered folder to embroider and one more lining to stitch before being attached and I'm good to go....
(If you aren't familiar with my London stitching you can read about that here)
Earlier this week I spoke about a plan I had for a summer project, a new wrapping cloth. Several of you mentioned this piece.....the long untouched body bag. Some of you mention it a lot.....I ignore you.
Why body bag? Basically it will eventually become a human sized wrapping cloth...a wrapping cloth for a body, the body bag. I can't even remember when I stared it. Maybe some of you could tell me.
Why has it been untouched for so long?
I can't quite put my finger on that....many reasons. It's daunting. It's such a huge project. There are feelings of inadequacy that it's not yet finished. I buried my head in the sand. I buried the embroidery in a wardrobe (it is hung properly, it's well cared for and pristine, it's not shoved in a box under the bed)
So when will I finish it? When I am ready. I can't force it. I want to embrace with pleasure every single stitch I ever sew. I don't ever want to be sewing out of duty, on demand.....
Don't get me wrong, I still love this work as much as I did when I started it....I'm just not ready to pick it up again yet.
The body bag isn't going anywhere and neither am I.............hopefully you aren't either so one day.....one day.
There are lots and lots of posts about this piece if you aren't familiar with it, including videos. You can access those here. (this post will be the first thing you see when following that link, just scroll past this one)
Yesterday I spoke about my plans for a summer project , my plans to make a new wrapping cloth. One or two of you mentioned the ''body bag'', you have shamed me, yes. I will speak more about that tomorrow.....
Meanwhile, I am crazy busy getting ready for London (only two weeks away!!) and I am happily embroidering in ''2018 embroidery school'' and happily playing with artist books over on the 12 month artist book blog. Those three things are the reason I don't intend to begin my new wrapping cloth until Summer....they deserve all my attention and I'm having so much fun I want to 'crack on' with them, no additional distractions.
However....yesterday I needed something to play with when I was waiting for collaged paper to dry and damp stretched cloth to be ready so I began another cloth book. This one will be small, it will be tiny, no bigger than 8x8 inches. So far I have used white silk, white lace and a gentle Liberty print which I have embellished with bullion loops, buttonhole stitch, beads and sequins. Laid alongside it here are a few pieces we are working on in '2018' embroidery school'. I can't say too much about those but you are not too late to sign up for that one or indeed the ''12 month artist book blog'' if you want to play along.
(I must say to my embroidery school group. This new cloth book isn't for class. I won't be using it for my class samples)
In artist book class I am making books. In 2018 embroidery school I am embroidering tiny stitch samples. It's been quite a while since I created a large piece of anything so I've got my thinking cap on and I've been playing a little with colour and things to spark an idea. Yesterday I was looking at this combination....white, froth, pattern, puffs, texture created by the use of French knots. This actually reminds me of my happy cloth. I think that's because I used this red patterned fabric in that piece.
I do think there is enough information here to make plans for another large cloth, enough colour information, texture information and proportion information too. The patterned red has to go though, be changed for something else. I'm always, always happy to be reminded of my 'happy cloth', that doesn't mean I want to make anything too similar this time though.
This will be my summer project. A large, heavily embellished wrapping cloth
We've started on a new book over on the 12 month artist book blog. It's very basic at the moment but I did say to the girls I needed to build up my stash of stitched pieces for when we get to the ''filling the pages'' stage. Hopefully they can see by these images that I'm on it....
As we have used a lot of colour creating pages in one of our other artist books for class, (this one) I am aiming to keep the one you see here mostly white.
I wish the little silver sequins were more visible. You can see them I know but they look much more delicate ''in the flesh'', the photographs don't illustrate that as well as I would have liked. I'm also very taken with the little Suffolk puffs. I used a very sheer silk for those and there is a beautiful lightness to them.
It's finally in use, my embroidered cloth sample book. There are a few samples in here now and lots of space for more. Now I want to make another one, they're addictive. There's not much point having empty sample books though so perhaps I should stitch a few more samples first. The first of the next batch will be put together this afternoon.
In case you are wondering 'what's the point'...well the main 'point' is I just love to have these, to pick them up and leaf through the stitching. They also inform and inspire. If I am stuck for an idea for an edge for example...pick up the samples and take a look. They give an idea of which fabric lives best with which fabric too. Is there too much pattern? not enough pattern? Does that applique need more bullion knots? Should that hexagon be edged with running stitch? and on and on......
Drum roll please.....it's finished. One needle case, sparkly sequins, ribbon, embroidery, hexagons....and it's now in the shop here.
I do love making these, vintage hankies, scraps of cloth, playtime on a new piece. This one has some pretty bias binding which I recently purchased and I'm tempted to get more. It 'lifts' the surface, adds just enough pattern without overwhelming.
When laid flat this measures eleven inches by ten and a half inches. I am quite tempted to keep it for myself but how many needle cases does on girl need....
We are still enrolling for '2018 embroidery school' if you want to join us. You can read more here.
This morning I made videos for class on Friday.......I demonstrated several new embroidery stitches and I mounted little three inch square samples too. As you can probably guess I had a very happy morning.
