Karen Ruane

paper, stitch, crystals and a zip

Paper work continues in 'sewing circle', the piece with the zip fastener being our newest sample.

Hopefully you will notice I am continuing the run of embellishments on the outer surface of the lift up section.

The run of crystals is unfinished as I have ran out of those.  (they are on order now)

There is more pin pricking to do before this one is complete.

The piece with the row of web stitches is one of three pieces that I have mentioned before, this being another.

I'm aiming to begin finishing this three section piece in our videos next month.

(A word on the background in these images.....white is difficult to photograph especially when the weather is gloomy. Laying white on a background with colour and pattern helps with the photography. I have used this ledger a few times recently for that purpose and you can read more about it here.)

the process, the results and the potential

This is a follow on from yesterday....making lace cloth and big plans.

The first image I took yesterday, the process.

The results are below. I have created six pieces so far, I need many, many more.

And below you can see the potential. The embellished piece is constructed from lace cloth. It also has uses in artist books which you can see here.

Sewing machine

The trouble with having lots of plans is the hours available in a day don't care how much you want to do.

I started making lace cloth today for a long held idea, it's been brewing for a while and this is the first chance I've had to begin.

(I'm owning up to using an old image here. It's so dreary here today I couldn't get a decent shot but the piece in this image is exactly what I am up to now along with two other variations.)

The video....that's from around 20 minutes ago....

 

 

Zoom

It's that time of the month again. It's Monday and it's four weeks since the last time this happened. It's Zoom Monday.

We had a gathering at 10am this morning and we will gather again at 7pm this evening.

Two meetings are needed to catch all the time zones.

This morning we chatted about paperwork and there were demonstrations too. It will be the same tonight except there will be different faces.

I get so much pleasure from these online get togethers. I never thought I would, I have always been camera shy but then nobody is looking at me, they are looking at my needle and thread.

re examining

As I am consumed by paperwork and pin pricking at the moment as a process of surface design I have spent some time today looking closer at past works.

I see so much potential for development here but I also see the lack of hours in a day.

There is one piece of 'paperwork' from class that I haven't shared here yet and I have plans for that, to work on that in our live Zoom sessions tomorrow.

It's a distraction, my plans are probably unexpected but I have another one of those itches I just have to scratch.

hooks, eyes and paper

Fingers crossed everything appears to be resolved with Typepad.

(I hope I don't live to regret saying that)

So here we go with todays post, covering my eyes with my hands and only peeping through my fingers as I'm scared it will all go wrong and the host will go down again.

The promised paperwork.

This work is evolving in my subscription learning class.

One of three pieces, this section requires the most time and is by far the fiddliest on account of the hooks and eyes.

If you compare it to the last time you saw it here, I hope you get an appreciation of the progress I have made.

Hooks and eyes have featured in my work on and off for a long time, this is an example from 2011.

(the post is on my old blog and is quite a good read if I do say so myself!)

There is another example here from 2018.

I'm hoping to finish this section today and move on to the other two. That will allow me to finish this piece in my next videos for class.

 

lined with white.

There have been some issues with this blog over the past week or so.

This is a Typepad fault which they say is being fixed.

Until things are running smoothly here I will also post to my Ko-Fi site should you have trouble accessing my posts and images.

The Ko-Fi site is here.

I know I promised paperwork in this post when I was here last but I'm not sure my membership groups have seen that yet so next time....

I have been busy though, lining these little white embroidered pieces with a plain backing.

They are moveable linings, they lift away so I'm not trying to hide the reverse, I guess I just thought they would 'raise' the status of the embroidery if that makes sense.

Going back to the Typepad issues I mention at the top of this post...the situation is causing me a lot of anxiety, I have years and years of my life wrapped up in this blog.

I am following typepad on Twitter and their updates do not fill me with confidence.

As I said though, I will also post to Ko-Fi. (you are able to subscribe over there if you wish to, for free)

There should be a little follow button in the top right hand corner of the page.