Sumptuous Surface Embroidery

Week three

I have outlined the waves in a thick variegated silk in back stitch and the shell in a pale blue 2 ply silk in back stitch and whipped chain for the thick ridges. Whipped with a very fine blue/mauve boucle. The areas in between I have stitched in a layered Filling Stitch, mainly on the diagonal. I used DMC 4030 a variegated blue/green fine silk thread from Colourstreams in a stronger blue/green called “Seascape”. It looks good, I think, but I wish the tie down thread had have stood our a bit more.

                                       The whole design

I used a needle lace stitch in the first (L.H) wave in a perle cotton DMC 503 of sage green.

The next wave I stitched in a somewhat wobbly feather stitch in Cottage Garden Threads stranded cotton #801 Salvia (3 strands) I don’t think this one  looks as good as when I usually stitch it in a straight line, instead of trying to fill in an odd shape.  My next wave I am embroidering in Four sided Stitch – a pulled stitch - in Gumnut Yarns – Buds 100% silk.

I have two more waves to embroider and I am trying to decide which stitches to use, there are so many to choose from, and I tend to get tired of looking and trying to make up my mind!

I am enjoying this so much I can

hardly put it down and I have other work to do!

Last Monday I went on a bus trip with my patchwork group. We were away 12 hrs so it was a very long day!  I spent a fair amount of money! And only bought one piece of material! Our first stop was at one of our woolen mills, where I didn’t buy balls of wool, but several bags of about 500gm (17.6oz)each of wool top         (unspun fibre) several bags of which were blends with bamboo fibre. So really looking forward to spinning that, but I have three spinning commissions in front of that!

Our first patchwork shop is where I did most of my damage. They had a great section for embroidery! Not only DMC cottons (which most of the other shops had) but lots of hand dyes and not only cotton, but my all time favourite fibre – Silk

Several books also came home with me as well.

    Spread your Wings and Soar

                        Judy

Sumptuous Surface Embroidery

Week two

This is the design we have finally decided on – one shell and the waves. I have transposed the design onto 25ct Lugana even weave. Now for the real fun. I am going on a long bus trip tomorrow, so it is too good a chance for some sewing time on the bus.

The top of the waves will be low relief blending into high relief in the lower half. The high relief stitching covering all the lower half not dividing the waves into their individual components. The low relief upper portion will show each wave outlined in a lovely silk lightly variegated from light to dark green, and each one in soft save greens and individual stitches in each section.

For the shell I have a lovely greeny/blue variegated stranded cotton and a bluey/mauve very fine boucle for the ridges.  I have also found the thrums from my Ikat scarf, most of which will be great for this. It is 20/2 silk

          Spread your Wings and Soar

                                          Judy

Sumptuous Surface Embroidery

Week 1

I decided on a sea scene – Under the Surface – The Octopus’s Garden

I spent hours going through my many books of the subject (this has been a reoccurring theme in my work) and the internet – a marvelous invention these days for thought busting, and some actual shells from my collection and ideas from designs in this theme from the past.

I now probably have tooo many ideas!  I have to choose and make some decisions, which I am not good at.  (I am also thinking of using this as a jumping off point for the “Beyond the Surface” Exhibition of the Q’land branch of ATASDA.)

As for size I think I want something a little bigger than 6”x 4” postcard, possibly to fit in the size of A5 approx. 6” x 8” but not necessarily fill it.

Concept

Seashell, ocean, fish, Pacific, water, wet, waves, holiday, relaxation, living under the ocean, biosphere, bubble, swimming, snorkeling, diving, freedom, boat, sea floor, seaweed, filtered light, green, teal, turquoise, blue, “Cacholot” by Alan Dean Foster, coral

Water + land = watered land = sea encroachment or foods

                      = land under the sea = living under the ocean   -  this will be the one.

What would it be like to live under the Ocean?    An ocean garden,   In a biosphere, fish swimming by, coral walls, seaweed, shells, bubbles

My response to living under the Ocean

Form

Fish in outline, heavily encrusted around his to represent coral, broken up with fronds of seaweed in outline or couching or fly stitch.

Colour, Threads and Material

I chose a colour range of blue/greens. I suppose it is not quite a monotone but they are “my” colours! Again I should break out of my comfort zone, but…..

The threads I chose are from Rae’s Rags, in her hand dyed “Jealousy” colourway, which ranges from blue through to green. From her selection of yarns I chose twisted rayon, sparkle rayon, cotton/rayon, rayon chenille, stranded cotton, linen and a very fine linen, rayon boucle, tubular rayon, rayon gimp.

Then I took a couple of the multi coloured yarns and selected solid colours to match in stranded, cotton, different sizes of perle cotton and stranded rayon.

Finally I went through my stash and found some silk – a very fine commercial 2ply, a couple of heavier weight ones, a skein of my hand dyed, hand spun 5 ply silk and some knitting yarns that would be good for couching.

My base material is a ecru even weave, 28 count.  This I may decide to hand dye or even use something like the Inktense pencils by Derwent, though I will need to increase my range! A good excuse to go to the art shop ggg As if I needed one!

    Spread your Wings and Soar

                          Judy

Let's Start again!

To say it has been a while since I last posted would be a mild understatement!!! As you can see it is over 2yrs since I last posted, and of course Blogger has changed everything!!!! What I have I done since then. Most of that time has been spent looking after mum as her health gradually failed. Eight months ago she had a near fall and had 2 bleeds into the brain. She was in hospital nearly a week and a half. But the fall brought on full dementia. So it has been a very trying time all round. Someone had to be with her all the time. She died a month ago. Derek's mum also died in January this year, so the first quarter of this year has not been a very good one for us.

I have managed to get some weaving, spinning and knitting done. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish my piece for the Australian Textile and Surface Design Association’s Travelling Suitcase Exhibition for 2012-14 - Marrakesh. My Maharajah’s Garden piece finally arrived home, and is now hanging in my studio.

Easter week I did a Photoshop work shop at Fibre Arts Australia - Ballarat which was very good but rather daunting when the tutor said that we would touch less than 10% of the programs' capabilities!

Now I am about to do an online workshop from Sharon B, (remember I quoted her stitch dictionary when working on the Maharajah’s Garden project) Sumptuous Surface Embroidery.
There is some wonderful embroidery shown there. I have also just received a wonderful book "Crewel Twists - Fresh ideas for Jacobean embroidery" by Hazel Blomkamp, wonderful ideas!

I am saving the best till last! I have two new babies. I lost my last Siamese - Sam - last October. I had to wait until the end of January for my babies to be old enough to come home. I now have a neutered male Seal point Siamese born Sept last year named Kaiko (yes we know Kaiko is a girl's name, but we are not telling him!) and his half sister born a month later, who is a Chocolate Point Siamese named Tamika or Tami for short. They are sooooo beautiful and engaging. They are from Kalinya Siamese in Wollongong NSW Australia

This is our sweet little girl - Tamika

This is our handsome boy Kaiko










And I couldn't finish without a sample from my Photoshop workshop

Hopefully I can keep this blog up to date a little better.

Spread your Wings and Soar

                          Judy