Karen Ruane

layers, textures....

Yesterday if you remember I was talking about some thoughts I'm having about taking a different approach to ledgers, artist books. This is the start of that, mixing surfaces....cloth and stitch with doodles and texture....larger pieces than I normally use in my artist books. I wouldn't say I'm there yet in terms of firm plans, I'm still playing and thinking and making notes. Maybe I will overlay pages with fine papers, sheer, lace like papers......again I'm just wondering, considering, laying those down. At the moment the overlay in the fourth image is my favourite, it's lighter, more delicate.

There's still a long way to go with these. I will keep playing, testing....

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A new ledger

it's mostly been ledgers....

almost

We still have pins, we still have tacking stitches and we don't yet have a lining but what we do have is a boned lower edge, a hand stitched reverse and a couple of decorative lengths of silk ribbon. It's almost finished.......the white hankie pocket being made in class. This is one of those pieces I am going to struggle to part with. You can't keep everything Karen I keep repeating to myself, after all....I'm keeping this one and how many pockets does one girl need. (haven't we heard that before about pin pillows??)

 

 

(just to remind you.....this is how this piece looked last time you saw it)

 

Reinventing the page. Monday March 7.

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loops on white, a video

layers of white

Last time you saw this it looked like this....since then more layers have been added, more hankies, more lace. There are now bullion knots and a little running stitch. I'm not sure whether we have seen the last of the gimp yet...I'm thinking. 

When you read this I will be here, being educated and inspired....

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a bullion loop seam and lemon running stitch

mix and match....

Layered white from class.

I do apologise......this isn't damp stretched, looks like a dogs dinner.....never mind. This is a piece from class. Vintage hankies, layers, gimp. It is in its very early stages. I have another piece ongoing in class too but that isn't ready for any kind of unveiling yet, public or otherwise.

The hankies used in this piece are ''time worn'', soft...like butter. Although that makes them beautiful and an honour to work with it also makes them unruly, liable to fold of their own volition, liable to crease if you look at them the wrong way, (if you know what I mean) I'm hoping damp stretching will tame them.....

Layers....a pocket.

As promised, this layered piece transformed into a pocket. Three Suffolk puffs adorn one edge of the opening and another is hiding inside. We will be making lots of pockets in January, big ones, small ones, layered ones, hankie ones, boned ones, softly draping ones. If you want to make some too then read this, see what you think.

I nearly didn't come today....embroidery seems trivial somehow. But then I thought no...normality, carrying on with our way of life is essential, live our lives, don't be beaten.

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Suffolk puffs on a page

an edge of embroidered Suffolk puffs

pages

pocket decisions....

The layered piece of silk and lace cloth from this post is now finished in terms of surface embellishment. Small clusters of French knots have been embroidered onto the lace cloth overlay to mimic the embroidery which is present on the silk surface. I now know what I am going to do with this to finish it, the video today explains my thoughts, my reasons, my intentions.

For those of you who were interested in my online class intentions for next year and who missed it yesterday......my next class is described here.

 

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the first pocket from class

light as a feather

embroidered silk and an accompanying ledger page

playing with white lace....

connected?

layers.....

These two pieces were embroidered eons ago. The intention was to layer them, titivate more, a wall panel perhaps. I picked them up again last night, drawn to playing some more, layering the lace cloth on the embroidered silk, embroidering some sections of lace cloth directly to the silk, leaving other areas loose.

I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it was to spend four hours with this last night.

A wall panel? I'm not sure now.  As you may have noticed I am a little pocket obsessed these days....... I'm tempted. For now though I am just going to enjoy handling this, working on the surface, final decisions about it's purpose don't matter yet.

There is more buttonhole lace to work on the open areas of lace cloth. I'm also thinking about embellishment, stitch on the surface of the lace cloth in the solid areas. The silk sections will most likely remain as they are...less is more in some cases.

 

(I have received a few e mails asking about my plans for classes after Christmas. I do have a plan, of course I do but had thought it too early to start talking about that. A question...is it too early? Do you want to know sooner rather than later? Let me know)

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embroidered silk and an accompanying ledger page

blue and white, paper and cloth

playing with white lace....

an embroidered lining and a button

layers of lace,

So many pictures today! Why? Well because there is a lot to see on this cloth. I actually, honestly, really, truthfully do wish you could all take hold of this and inspect it. That's what I was doing last night as I searched for more areas to titivate, more seams to edge, more holes to strengthen with stitch. I had an amazing time stitching on this for the whole of the evening yesterday, five hours in total probably or thereabouts.

This piece was started ages ago, a long time, last year I think. It has grown, similar to the manner of a doodle cloth in so far as bits were added haphazardly as and when I felt the cloth needed it. That explains it's non uniform shape, it grew as it wanted to grow. There is layer upon layer of lace, some vintage some new along with mirrors, applique, French knots and so many embroidered seams I lost count.

I think I can safely say it's finished now, embellished to within an inch of its life. It's now in the shop, it was always intended for the shop it just took me a little longer than I had planned. What can I say....I got carried away......

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paper, lace, pattern and print...

playing with white lace....

looking.....

 

 

This morning I have been looking. Looking at letterforms and lace in ledgers and on design sheets and then looking at how the letters appear through lace. How does lace break them up, distort them whilst forming a delicate layer. I  know that this mornings ''looking'' will inform something new. I already have an idea of what that ''new'' will be. I won't elaborate yet.....there are notes to be made and doodles to be doodled.

There is a lot going on here at the moment. Things you can't see, nothing tangible in terms of embroidered pieces. It's background stuff. Things that keep everything else moving. I like these times, going through the other, unseen processes it's just a shame I can't share them in terms of finished embroidery..........................that will come............................

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more lace

I quite like it here......