Karen Ruane

a collection of surfaces and a possibility for a new ledger

My collection of surfaces for ledgers, for embroidery, for collage and design sheets is growing. It's a good thing to have variety, to have different choices but I need to start focusing. I need to choose a few of these, decide on the most appropriate pieces and then create ten of each for workshop packs. 

Of course I will have other uses for these, one of those being as inserts, pages, compositions for some artist books I wish to put together. Yesterday I played with a new format for those little books. My test piece is here in these images. I think it will work but first I need to work on some pages to see how it responds to that, how the weight and volume of samples and stitch affects how this ledger sits, how it opens and closes.

 

There is a short Instagram video showing these surfaces here.

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one of my favourites - Karen Ruane

A new ledger

Surfaces

It's been a productive week making surfaces, stitching paper and then stitching it to cloth, using cloth scraps to create base fabrics which live alongside torn papers. Some of you will know I like to have a stash of these surfaces, pieces of cloth and paper which I can use for design, in ledgers, for stand alone sheets, for sample portfolios.

Some of these newly created surfaces are for a ''sample portfolio' we are putting together in my current class, the wrapping cloth class ''wrapped and bound in stitch''.  Some are for new artist books, some are for new ''sample portfolios unrelated to the wrapping cloth class and some are for another class, an old class with a bit of new added.

I am in the process of writing that one up but the basics can be read here. I hope to have it ready for Monday

...we shall see.

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Suffolk puffs on a page

Wrapped and Bound in Stitch

spotty

little samples....

doodled cloth with added stitch

Embroidered pockets, human cloth. (doodle, embellish, wrap)

a white surface

I've been a bit ''off'' this week creatively, a little short on ideas and excitement for embroidery. I know.....it's a curse. It doesn't happen very often, (thankfully) but it's so hard to accept and climb out of. The ''page'' post from yesterday was all wrapped up with those feelings as was the blue and white post from earlier in the week.....I have many ''light bulb'' moments in a queue, all waiting for the big switch on.  

There is class of course.....I have a ton of ideas for that, no struggling where Clara is concerned. 

Meanwhile, last night I picked my white piece up and added a few little appliques, relaxing stitch, applique and bullion knots, extending a white surface.....try it, it's calming.

I think I am going to cut some paper now, play with a few little pages, maybe put a little artist book together, lose myself in scraps and little samples. I will let you know if that does the trick, brings the spark back.

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continuing....

two applique flowers....

paper lace

 

I'm still creating surfaces....delicate surfaces using lace, paper, cloth snippets, mostly white but with tiny amounts of blue too. There will be more of these. Each piece I have created has fed an idea for another piece.....I could be doing this for quite some time. 

One of these is a base of lace with added scraps of paper, torn edged paper, tissue paper with a barely visible pattern. I'm wondering if I should doodle on some areas of this, on some of the paper areas. I wouldn't want to ruin it but then again....I can always make more, I can cut away an area if I really don't like it. Now I just need to pluck up the courage.

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paper and texture

Doodle class

two

This is my homework from last week, two new design sheets. They both have stitched samples,  one has pencil drawing and they both have stitches embedded on the surface. My collection is growing. I would estimate I have a minimum of ten sheets similar to this up to this point. This morning I put another two together on camera for class later this week and I have many more samples yet to be mounted in a similar way.

In the future I should have no excuse for non creativity, for creatively blank moments. In theory browsing this collection, this library of information should be all I need to spark a new project, to inspire a new piece. Even at this non complete stage these pieces inspire. I get so excited you wouldn't believe it.

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new doodling on white silk

two

Lots of images today...I'm excited, two pieces almost finished, backing, titivating and edges happens later today. The white piece here appeared at the bottom of a pile yesterday. It had lain there unloved for quite some time.  Last night it got a large applique flower as an ''I'm sorry'' gift.

There is still one piece left to finish, this one. I can see bling in its future. Glass beads? Silver leather? Silver purl? a mix of all three or just one or two of these....we shall see.

an almost finished pocket

This afternoon I will be lining this pocket. I will then titivate the edges before ticking it off my ''to do'' list. I hope you can see the difference in this one from when you last saw it here....now to tackle another two pieces I have in progress.......

Then there are artists books, three completed, two still to finish. That is my Saturday plan......

front and back

It's coming together, the final pocket from class. This is where I was up to yesterday, an embroidered front and an embroidered back. Since then another section which shall remain nameless for now has been completed. All three pieces have been damp stretched and this has moved on enormously this morning, on camera. 

The circular embellishments you can see in the first image on the left are also pockets......three small  one large. There is piping cord snaking up the front too, secured with colourful bullion knots.

Embellishment on the reverse has been kept to a minimum although there is something else to add there. The curved line comprises bullion loops with French knots at their base. 

I am hoping to have this finished later this week. Then I can concentrate on my little books and the other pockets I have been putting together. 

Thank you for the feedback from yesterday's video. I appreciate the positive e mails more than you know.....

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New Class. Sampling for stitch.

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Sampling a surface

A new surface, put together a couple of days ago and now being embroidered, in sampler fashion. This may find it's way into my new artist books, small sections of it. I think quite a lot of it will find a home in the larger book I intend to make for myself.

There are strips of various silks and some cotton laid on a dupion surface. Up to now the hand embroidery is minimal, a little gimp, some bullion loops, a few French knots and a tiny area of buttonhole lace which I add today on video.

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my schoolwork

Suffolk puffs on a page

circles and ledger pages....

wiggly gimp

I made it.....my day so far, 30 minutes on the telephone to my internet provider and even longer to my mobile phone provider.....modern technology? Don't make me laugh. Press one for insanity, two for fury and three when you have lost the will to live........anyway, happy things, cloth things, sewing things, embroidery. Thank goodness for the serenity that is embroidery.

This piece is from here, hardly anything has been added but what a difference it has made. A wiggly line of gimp extending under the piping and coming out the other side in a straight line. One tiny pocket, of which there will be more, edged with bullion knots and French knots. What's not to love.....

 

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lace cloth, another page, a video.

a pocket, gimp and buttons