Karen Ruane

Silk dupion pages

It's only a couple of days since you last saw these pieces. They had recently been carefully removed from cloth pages as I wasn't happy with the cloth they were mounted on. They are now attached to silk dupion ready to be stitched, backed and put together into a cloth book and I am much happier.

The reverses will be embroidered too and the first one of those is taking shape now in embroidery school. I am hoping to make really good progress with this project over the next week or so as the current run of embroidery schoool is coming to an end.

As I just said, the current run of embroidery school is coming to an end soon. I shall be listing my next embroidery class very soon to begin in early September so watch this space.

little pink circles

This piece needed 'something' on the wide, plain sections. I dithered for a while and came up with holes, cutwork holes which remain open (as opposed to having cloth or lace laid behind them) and which were then embellished with little sequins. This is a fun piece, a happy piece, bright and fresh. I think the pink sequins add to that, enhance that theme.

Initially I bagan this piece and other similar pieces for use as overlays. Now I think I may combine them all into some kind of artist book, a reference of surface design ideas which I can look at in the future for inspiration.

an embroidered sleeve for an artist book

A glimpse for you of what's happenning in 'artist book' class. There is work still to do on the internal areas of this one but for now I am happy to gaze at the embroidered sleeve which serves as protection here.

The sleeve is beautifully soft, made from a mix of silk habotai, silk velvet and white trim which has been embellished with a combination of bullion knots, French knots, Turkey work, guilloche stitch and buttonhole lace.

There are little glimpses here of what's happening inside this one. Once that is finished and the girls have seen it I will share it with you.

a silk mount for a stitched paper sample

It's not final, my mind isn't completely made up yet but I'm toying with the idea of mounting my stitched white paper pieces on embroidered silk panels. This is the first part of playing, trying that idea out. I've embroidered along the top of a silk panel here, placed a piece of stitched paper under the embroidered header and now I'm thinking...looking at it every so often and thinking some more.

The eagle eyed among you will notice that one or two of my Guilloche stitches have acquired a curl, a kink, have become unruly. They will be severely reprimanded and replaced....please don't judge me.

drapery for an artist book

Silk velvet, delicate paper and vintage net, stitched together before being embellished with hand embroidery, beads and pom poms. I love the weight of this, the feel of it in my hands. This will drape over the cover of my new artist book, (these are the pages if you remember)

It's coming together.....

 

lace and silk velvet with sequins

Strips of vintage lace, silk velvet, metallic silk tissue with added sequin cloth.....embroidery. This is another book cover from artist books, it's a wraparound or at least it will be when it's finished. It's 27 inches long and around 7 inches wide. I think it will be narrower when it's finished, I'm leaning towards narrower. At the moment I am embellishing seams with French knots....I haven't counted them but suffice to say there are quite a lot and I don't think I am half way there yet. 

There is something very appealing about French knots sinking into silk velvet, I hope you get a sense of that from these images. 

Did you listen to my podcast yesterday from 'stitchery stories'? It's here again in case you missed it.  (just press the red button!) I will continue to share it for the next seven days until it's someone else's turn over there.

And....my new class begins on Monday. I made our first videos this morning and am so excited about the possibilities of lace, scrim, paper, silk net and all things floaty. I hope I can contain myself for a few more days.

You can register here.

 

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an added strip

Thanks for all the good wishes yesterday. The patient is improving despite having me for a nurse. Considering I can't even keep a pot plant alive he's doing well!

I had thought the size of this was set, the embroidery would be finished soon and then I could back it. But....yesterday I added the long strip you can see on the right in the image above. I just can't stop.

The teardrop like shape with the cutwork is a new addition on here too. I have no idea when this will eventually get finished, I am adding little stitched areas as and when the inspiration strikes. As you can see there's still quite a bit of space to fill. (this piece measures 18 x 20 inches at the moment)

I've had a query about the new class, specifically about requiring the use of a sewing machine. You do not need an all signing all dancing machine with millions of fancy stitches. All that is required is a basic machine which has the ability to stitch straight stitch (zigzag stitch would be useful too but not essential)

This new class is still open for registrations and you can read more here.

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a pocket, gimp and buttons

it continues to grow....

Since you last saw this yesterday I have added another panel. I have also added a cross stitch seam, a strip of cross stitch along one side, more gingham and three drops of bullion knots and the loopy stitch I love so much and am fast becoming obsessed with.

This will stay at this size now. The next stage is to fill the remaining open spaces. 

Tomorrow I will give you a break from this and show you my progress from 'embroidery school'. Things are rapidly coming together over there, we are in the latter stages of class with only a couple of weeks left to go. Time flies when you're having fun and learning new stitches.

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veil

It's been a while...months, many months since I worked on this. This is one of those pieces which is a joy to pick up again after a few weeks, months....I last worked on when I was on holiday in Spain last summer so there are associated memories not only of the cloth and embroidery.

The first post I came across about this piece when I was looking earlier today is here. There are only two panels in that post I think, now there are four, the most recent being the lower left in the top image. I joined that one on yesterday and last night added rows of buttonhole lace and a seam of bullion knots with pretty sequins.

I call this one a 'veil' piece because of the sheerness of the cloth I am using. I create each cloth panel myself before it can be added to the main body and before I begin to embellish. The panels are a mixture of silk scrim, silk muslin, silk net and metallic silk tissue. In terms of the finished size I am aiming for the only thing decided up to now is ''big''. And again recently I have been asked ''what do you do with it?'', not about this piece specifically but in general so just in case you are wondering......I won't do anything with it except  'have' it, hold it, fold it, unfold it, enjoy it.

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twenty five inches

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.

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