Stitchin' up a storm!
This shows part of the hand stitching on a piece of work about the imprisonment and forced feeding of Suffragettes. It illustrates perfectly I think the difficulty a textile artist has when making marks on a canvas.
When applying paint to a canvas I have only a limited way of applying marks, whereas when using stitch the variety and combinations can be overwhelming.
An added complication is that as embroiderers we are taught to apply stitches in a regular manner, using rhythm. This is not suitable when making marks as a textile artist, so we have to unlearn lessons painfully learnt in our youth.
I am an avid collector of stitch books, and one of the ones I consult frequently is Mary Nichols Encyclopedia of Embroidery Stitches including Crewel ( Pub. Dover Publications) which is a marvel of clarity. Not only does she describe and show the front of the stitching, and the back, but she describes the necessary rhythm to achieve an even stitch. I sometimes amuse myself by chanting these as I stitch. Sad, I know.
In using these particular stitches I have tried to imagine marks which suggest confinement, and as they are indicative of an imagined confinement they are worked in an uneven and off centre way. My fingers are very sore now with stitching heavily through multi layered fabric, and in fact I have blood stains on the back of the fabric. This is very appropriate to the subject I think.
Stitchin' up a storm!
This shows part of the hand stitching on a piece of work about the imprisonment and forced feeding of Suffragettes. It illustrates perfectly I think the difficulty a textile artist has when making marks on a canvas.
When applying paint to a canvas I have only a limited way of applying marks, whereas when using stitch the variety and combinations can be overwhelming.
An added complication is that as embroiderers we are taught to apply stitches in a regular manner, using rhythm. This is not suitable when making marks as a textile artist, so we have to unlearn lessons painfully learnt in our youth.
I am an avid collector of stitch books, and one of the ones I consult frequently is Mary Nichols Encyclopedia of Embroidery Stitches including Crewel ( Pub. Dover Publications) which is a marvel of clarity. Not only does she describe and show the front of the stitching, and the back, but she describes the necessary rhythm to achieve an even stitch. I sometimes amuse myself by chanting these as I stitch. Sad, I know.
In using these particular stitches I have tried to imagine marks which suggest confinement, and as they are indicative of an imagined confinement they are worked in an uneven and off centre way. My fingers are very sore now with stitching heavily through multi layered fabric, and in fact I have blood stains on the back of the fabric. This is very appropriate to the subject I think.