Embroidered brooch (wedding commission)

 ©PARAVENT

 ©PARAVENT

 ©PARAVENT

 ©PARAVENT

©PARAVENT

New Dress

Frock

Homemade / handmade new frock... upholstery fabric, transfer,

embroidery + surface printing.

Distraction

Working on the big project has been mentally exhausting. I just couldn't look at it anymore... so I started a new collection of mini-projects to do when I can't do the biggie a moment longer ;)

I came across this wonderful quote and wanted to make sure I didn't forget it.

"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."

Birthday portrait 2018

I've been doing birthday portraits for the little one for a few years now. 

There are some past efforts here. 

This latest one is probably the closest to capturing her spirit, so I added some text to fit :)

"When I count my blessings, I count you twice."

Progress report

Oh my... this is slow work, people! Has it really been 2 years since I last posted?
Why are you even still around to read this? :)) 
The day job has been very demanding, but some progress has been made, on this and other distraction projects. 

Commission

Sneak peek at a commission I've been working on...





If you'd like to see more of my embroidery work, you can pop over here.

Stitchery Hubris

A new piece just listed on my Big Cartel site :)

Birthday portraits

Long time no see! Unfortunately, I've been swamped with the day job but I have made 
some time to start a new little ritual... birthday portraits to document the last fleeting 
years of childhood. My eldest has already left the nest and it's made me realise I need 
to capture time with them while I can and treasure where we are now. 

These photos were taken exactly one year apart, and I'm amazed at the difference one 
year can make. 

Also, now that photo albums seem to be a thing of the past, it's a small way of keeping
a curated record of sorts I think :) Do you still keep a photo album? How do you document 
the years?

Process

I find it amazing how time after time I need to enact ideas to see if they work or not. 

The fabric actually has to be screenprinted or the colours crocheted together in order for 

me to see if it's what I want. I love that I can look at something (anything) and know 

instantly whether it 'works' but I'd equally love to be able to conceptualise in my mind 

and 'know' that way too. The thing that frustrates me about this process is that it makes 

for an abundance of waste if I can't find a way to make ideas work.

When it does come together, though, it's do-a-little-jig time. Sorry if this is totally 

boring for you but it's meaningful for me to document my process on this fabric.

It started with an idea. I had an old block I'd carved last year and I wanted to create a 

kind of funky check by lining up the diagonals in the pattern... I soon realised that I 

could only get them to line up in one direction, but I kind of liked this bit of wonk...

I sewed lines to try and make the 'check-ness' of it more formalised and it really 

didn't work (sorry - no pics of this), so I unpicked all of this and started thinking about 

ways to make the design more cohesive, finally deciding to overprint in another colour...

This was okay, but it still didn't have something that punctuated it or drew it together. 

I thought about more overprinting in a different pattern but then was wildly distracted 

by a fluoro floss find online and started plotting a bit of embroidery on the piece, 

starting with some black thread just to see if it might work...

The black was fun but I could see it wasn't going to work on the whole piece, so 

when the floss arrived I set to work and found myself doing my favourite stitch at 

the moment. I have no idea what it's called but I think of it as a skeleton stitch 

because it looks like I've just boned a fish and laid out it's skeleton flat ;)

I've done about five of them so far. I'm going to do alternate diagonal lines with

the embroidery and see how that looks alone. If it needs a bit more interest or 

contrast I might do some black thread detail on the other diagonals.

Do you play with your pieces like this? Do you have to re-work things until they 

come together? I often think that if I was better at designing my blocks I 

wouldn't need to fuss around like this... but then maybe this very process is

building on that body of knowledge that will all come together in my mind one 

day and I'll be able to design without the need for all this fussing ;)

Hope it's a lovely (Father's Day) weekend for you... I'm hoping we'll be able to 

corral our daughters' social and work commitments and go see Moonrise Kingdom 

all together :)