Karen Ruane

a break

If you read this post you will be aware of the questioning I have been doing recently. Questioning my future, the direction of my work, the substance of 'me' as a practicing creative. For a short time I thought it was a blip, that I had made contact again with my direction. That however turns out not to be the case.

I have decided to take an indefinite break from this blog, to re-examine my work, to concentrate purely on creating, to try and stretch myself creatively, to focus on myself and my work in private.

Please don't worry if you are part of my current 'live' online classes. I remain commited to you and your learning ONE MILLION PERCENT.

paper, layers....

From the very start of this piece I never had a plan. It just grew, evolved and the result was this very impracticle artist book which would crease if you looked at it the wrong way, is difficult to handle and needs extra careful 'putting away' when I finish working on it. Last time it was on here I was planning on layering paper and lace to create 'linings' for the two large areas on the front. They are done now as you can see. After they are tied on I have no clue what will happen next, I'm as much in the dark as you are.

filing pages with lace, cloth, stitch and dangly things

This little book is getting so full, so full it's hard to work on the pages now. Impossible is what will stop me though and for now we're not there. The little green 'donut' like bead which I added yesterday has been living here for a few years. I have several of those just waiting for their perfect place. They are supposed to slot onto a tubuar bracelet, jewellery, build your own collection of these kind of things to adorn your wrist in the manner of a charm bracelet. I prefer to adorn a page.

Embroidery school is two weeks 0ld now. Up to now we have made buttons, these buttons and these buttons.......it's not too late to join in. You can read more here.

A glimpse inside this book

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Karen Ruane (@karenruane) on Sep 22, 2019 at 4:50am PDT

delicate papers

This morning I played with this a little. There are two pieces of embroidered and titvated paper here. It's a mix of papers, delicate papers, lace like papers. There is lace here too, overlaid and embroidered onto the paper layers. The embellishment consists of hand stitch, sequins, tiny buttons, knots, trailing thread, trailing ribbon and then there are the hand made buttons. One piece was on here earlier this week, the piece with the orange ribbon and the ribbon tied hand made button from class. That piece is now attached to a similar piece of embellished paper with three hand embroidered ball buttons, (also from class) at the seam. The edge with the very pretty (and scarce..can't find more of those anywhere), the pretty lemon sequins and Guilloche stitch is only pinned at the moment. I think a simple running stitch will suffice in that area.

plans and progress

Lots of things on my table again. You saw the little floral paper thingies yesterday I know. They are out now because they are hopefully going to help me finish the large paper disc piece in terms of ideas inspired by how they were put together. I'm thinking layers of paper and lace, discs, with embroidery and other titivations.

Then there's the buttons....the swoon inducing buttons we have been making in embroidery school. I gathered those together to assess whether I need to make more. What did I decide? Well the first thing I decided was 'need' has nothing to do with it, 'want' is the important thing and yes, I want to.

studio time

I've been taking pictures as I work this past week, recording what I'm doing, keeping track. Mostly what's been happening is related to classes, titivating pages for ledger class, creating buttons and figuring out where to use them for embroidery school and then there's the cloth book. I've been thinking about that a lot, making plans for more pages and wondering how mnay pages there will be in total when I'm finished.

There's new thread too. A christmas gift which is only just being used properly. I will wind those onto cards as and when I use them. I did put these on my christmas list last year out of curiosity as I'd never used them before. They have glitter...a shocker for me but it is quite subtle and the threads remain beautifully soft despite the glitter.

Ledgers, a record of stitch

This work, this page is the work I spoke of earlier this week when I confirmed my decision to hang in with my online learning programmes. This ledger is evolving perfectly within the forum of its online class. I'm meeting targets, achieving aims for the group as a whole and actually like this work very much. Whilst working on this and loving what was happening on this page I asked myself 'why am I doing this? 'who is it for'?  and like I said the other day I am doing it for me but I'm also doing it for class, to feed that group, to hopefully inspire that group.

Turn that on it's head now....I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for the Ledger class. I wouldn't be inspired and motivated without the class. I often suspect I get just as much if not more from my classes than the group does. They keep me going, their enthusiasm and commitment to their creativity feeds and inpsires me. I would be nothing creatively without my classes, the motivation would wane I am sure and who would push me to crack on, test my brain, push my ideas...who?

adornment

If you can't find the perfect button to adorn your embroidery......make your own. You saw these buttons last week and I have been itching to use them in my work. This is the first one. It sits on a piece of embroidered paper. I haven't a clue what happens next but for now this will do, it makes me happy. The ribbon ties make me happy, the loops at the edge of the buttons enabling me to tie them on make me happy and hopefully the girls in embroidery school will be happy seeing how you can use these little adornments, these little fiddly things which I suspect may have caused a few headaches at the start.

my ledger is filling up.....

Each day I fall a little bit more in love with this ledger. Each additional stitch, each additional scrap of pattern, I love how it's evolving. Working in this book over the past few days has helped with my angst too, the angst I have been speaking of in my last two posts, the angst concerning the viability of my continuing with online classes.

The latest page for this which isn't shown here, (I will post that some time this week), that latest, most recent work confirmed for me that this is who I am. I can't become someone else. I don't want to become someone else. I like being me. I love my classes. I have a bond, an affinity with each person who learns alongside me whether they only take one class or twenty classes. The thought of not having that, of not having this 'life' is not something I can contemplate.

Working on that as yet unseen page made me think...why am I doing this? who is it for? and the answer? I was doing it for me of course but also I was doing it to fire ideas, create inspiration, ideas and inspiration to share with the girls in Ledger class. And they are inspired, they tell me they are inspired.

There has been feedback to my last little period of angst too, all of it positive,  most of it asking me not to stop. Thank you for that. I honestly didn't post those thoughts for an ego boost. (and I haven't had an ego boost anyway, my angst ran too deep for that) I posted them because I felt I had to, to allow me a forum for thinking, deciding.

I'm not a quitter. I feel I have something to offer the world of embroidery and creativity so I'm going to pull my socks up and crack on.

new buttons

Hand embroidered buttons, in truth not very practical but I seem to be saying it a lot lately...who cares about practical. I fear there are addictions forming in embroidery school, there's definitely an addiction forming here and I can't wait to use these in my work.

The future of my online classes may be up in the air but embroidery continues and besides, I want to give my all to the two current groups. Embroidery, cloth, thread, it's who I am, it's what I do.

I'm in a strange place at the moment emotionally. It's a huge thing for me that I may I have to give up my online teaching, it has been central to my daily life for a long time and I will have to make adjustments............ just wanted to explain the reason for what will most likely be only sporadic posting on here for a little while.

Meanwhile, there is a lot of joy in other areas of my life. These two beautiful young people got engaged to be married on Tuesday. I can't tell you how proud I am of my son and what he has overcome to get to this stage in his life. His choice of life partner, his luck in finding his perfect 'other' couldn't make our family happier. She is perfect for him, kind, funny.... we love you Chelsey. It really is like this was meant to be.