Karen Ruane

looking

At them moment I seem to be completely surrounded by things which are inspiring me, leading to lists forming in my head, ideas taking shape and a dilemma as to what to do first. The piece here with the gimp, pink purl and hankie corner was inspired by the image below which popped up on my Facebook timeline earlier this week from one year ago.

It's the coloured discs which particularly make me salivate and as I was gifted some of those last week I was compelled to use at least a couple of them. This morning as I was removing the new piece (top three images) from the damp stretching board it occurred to me how comfortable this little piece of stitched cloth would be if it were to live alongside the handkerchief from yesterday, if not actually that handkerchief but those colours and trims. Now I'm thinking about wrapping cloths....these colours, these techniques, delicate cloth and lace edges. 

You don't have time Karen, really you don't but it's an idea that can burn slowly whilst these pieces live in my cloth sample books. Meanwhile in the spirit of these pieces there will be more sampling especially as I have yet to use my new ribbon which arrived earlier this week...

And don't get me started on the exciting things which have me in raptures over on the artist book blog. I am beginning to think about putting these pages together and will begin to embroider delicate overlays for them later today, to protect them, to create soft layers. 

 

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a pink fringe

I started working on this piece at my London workshop last week. Initially it was going to be a pin pillow top...now I'm not sure. I am tempted to work a little more on it and mount it in one of my cloth sample books. I won't decide yet but I'm definitely leaning towards that idea.

The pink fringe has me in raptures. I bought that in London last week, I only bought half a yard and now I wish I had bought more..watch this space for a little mail ordering going on.

Every edge on this piece was bought in London last Friday, the fringe the ribbon, the silk which is folded at the base of the fringe. I chose well I think....

(there is only one artist book left over in the shop...thank you for wanting those. You can see the last one here)

ingredients for a book cover

A front cover for a book we are putting together over in artist book class. There's a very long strip of embroidered silk and lace, a textured and embroidered watercolour paper base, embellished with French knots and tiny white beads which is laid here alongside paper fragments which when stitched will compliment and enhance the inside of the cover.

This cover will be complete before the pages. There are overlays to be made yet, soft, sheer pieces which will protect the embroidered pages that will live inside this cover. So, quite a long way to go before you see this one completely finished. I need to set aside a day next week, an overlay day to play with lace cloth and delicate paper. Here's hoping.

I have one spare workshop kit remaining from last weeks London class. If you are interested in purchasing that please get in touch. You can read about it here  and get an idea of what little pieces of embroidery related things are inside. The pocket itself is completely hand made. The cost is 35 GBP plus postage costs. (SOLD. Thank you)

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three little treasures

Three little artist books each with their own little white cloth bag to live in. I finished them...wow...I loved making them and I will definitely be making more. It's incredibly satisfying to be sat in the midst of chaos, chaos created by having every single scrap of everything you have ever ''not thrown away' around you and choosing the special bits from the piles, adding them to a scrap from another pile and creating a mini composition from those usually discarded pieces.

These have six pages, 12 sides, three by three inch pages. Each side a surface crammed with embellishment and embroidery.

They are now in the shop.

I'm still playing catch up here. The case is unpacked and has been thrown away...the damage is fatal I am afraid. I have piles of cloth and shopping everywhere, there's time, time for more drooling before I find a home for everything.

This morning I made videos for my artist book class. I am so excited about what's happening over there today. I only hope the girls are too when they get the videos later.

(it's not too late to sign up for that. you can read more here....)

London

At last I can show you the embroidered pockets I created for my London workshop which passed us by in a flash over this past weekend. It was amazing, incredible, so much fun, so much embroidery, too much cake and too much chocolate, lots of laughing and lots of chit chat.

Later this week I will share our creations from the weekend but first the kits.

I am sorry L ....this will spoil your surprise I guess..sorry!!

Hand embroidered folders/pockets/pouches.....sequins, French knots, gimp, bullion knots....... all finished by hand. Hand stitched edges, cords and internal pockets....

Liberty fabrics, hand stitched and pieced hexagons (me!! I did those) ribbon, trim, stitched papers, embroidered scrim and collaged white papers and tiny little hand stitched pillows along with decorative paper surfaces, grids and textured background papers.

and not forgetting little bundles of paper balls for button making!

 I think it was a huge success. I think the girls were happy with their kits. I am sure they will let me know if they weren't.....

I am playing catch up now. My washing machine is calling and I have suitcases to unpack. (the wheels broke on my suitcase...I now have the right arm of an Olympic body builder and the ache to prove it)

There was shopping. I will show you later this week.

The shop is open again for online learning classes, no cakes or chocolate I'm afraid but lots of happy stitchy things which will more than make up for that and later this week I may, just may have a couple of little artist books for sale.....watch this space.

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a little pocket

It's a little fold over pocket...or pouch...whatever you want to call it. It measures six inches by nine inches when it's folded and it ties with white ribbon. There are pockets inside too, for ribbon, needles, cloth, thread..anything really although I wouldn't keep unprotected scissors in there. In a moment I am going to wrap it in tissue paper and put it away somewhere safe....

I'm going away tomorrow.  It's my London workshop this weekend and I will be spending Thursday and Friday in London as a tourist and fabric shopper. I will be on nInstagram ... I am an Instagramaholic so you won't really be getting rid of me. 

See you next week.

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a front cover

A little break from mini artist books today, they are continuing out of sight. This is the front cover for an artist book we are putting together on the 12 month artist book blog. This one will hold the pages you have seen before and you can see glimpses of here. The cloth strip was completed recently...you have seen that before too. It will drape over the paper to form the front cover once the cover is embellished. I am part way there with the cover embroidery and embellishment. So far I have created a little texture and added French knots. Next I will add little white beads before moving to the other side of the embroidered cloth strip and doing the same over there.

Later today I am hoping to finish this. I still need join front and back before hand sewing them together. I might also add a little ribbon to mimic a closure...we shall see.

 

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stash building

More tiny stitched samples to fill pages and build up my stash. This was a good choice of pastime in the days leading up to my London trip although if you could see the state of my house you might disagree. There are scraps of paper and cloth everywhere. Every time I move I trail thread behind me. I keep stepping on dropped beads and seeing glistening all over the floors from dropped sequins. I'm not bothered though..maybe the elves will come in and clean up when I'm away...probably not though.

When I'm working on these little things they give me so many ideas for using the technique, the process on other pieces. The folded corner of a hankie....that's one I have used before many times. I have used it here too and it's given me another idea as has the use of silk velvet alongside embroidered paper. That one in particular has gotten me very excited. (4th image) I think you'll be seeing a lot more of that.

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three inch pages

You are probably thinking after my post yesterday 'she said these wouldn't be rushed'. They won't, it wasn't. This has been several days in the making but one of my new tiny artist books is indeed finished. I think these might become addictive. This has half the pages of my 'white book' and those pages are half the size too, only three inches square. Compared to the white book this one did come together extraordinarily quickly. Part of the reason for that will be the size of my stash, lots of 'bits' to draw from, stitched papers, stitched cloth all created over a long period of time.

When I was putting this together I had everything strewn out around me, so much to choose from, decisions, decisions....only problem is I started to fall a little bit in love with this last night and if I'm not careful I will get to a stage where I can't bear to part with it. I am going to keep it for a little while longer though....just to gaze....I hope that's ok.

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mini artist books

When I posted about ''the white book'' earlier this week I was completely shocked with the response, the positive response. Thank you so much. The most asked question last week was  'is it for sale'? It's not sorry, it's for me. What normally happens with my artist books is I make them, I sell them, I don't allow myself to fall in love with them as they are going to be for sale before I even begin. That one however was always going to be for me. I have fallen completely in love with it and couldn't part with it for anything.

But....I had a thought...yes, I have those sometimes. Make more for all those who have asked. I don't mean I am taking orders or accepting commissions, rather I am working on these just to have some 'available'. Having said that, don't hold your breath. These are tiny, three inch by three inch pages and in theory should come together quickly...in theory. Thing is I can't rush these, I can't rush the bigger ones and I can't rush these either. I could never work in 'production line mode' churning things out quickly, after the quick sale. I can't chase the money, won't ever chase the money because embroidery means more to me than that.

So, the first one is here. It's not complete but as I said...rushing isn't going to figure anywhere in this. I did think about explaining to you how amazing I find working on these but I don't think I have the words, am unable to express just how much of a joy it is to compose these little pages with embroidered scraps. Hopefully the images illustrate that in a small way.

The following images and very short video are of the pre book stage, the search through my stash and the creation of lace, paper and stitched surfaces to embellish with hand embroidery and use on these tiny pages.

 

 

 

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