Crewel Tool kit

Currently I have been working a lot in crewel embroidery. Mostly french knots and bullion stitch to describe wounds in my fine art work. It is most definitely a labor of love because the work is so tiny yet so many hours go into each piece. I hope that it will translate well when I have my group exhibition in October at the Ohio Art League gallery.

Anyways it got me to looking at my tool kit and also a nudge from a friend about an embroidery toolkit contest going on in the UK. I thought why not. If she thought it was interesting enough to suggest I might as well share it.

So here it is:

In my kit starting at twelve O'clock going clockwise:

• My appleton crewel threads hoop, which I made
• Clover embroidery hoop stand
• Embroidery pocket guide
• Clover embroidery hoop
• Thread heaven
• Embroidery scissors
• Thread snip ring by clover
• Needle pull pads
• Paper piecing hexagons
• Thread
• Seam rippers
• Eraser, pencil, post it notes
• Felted Wool ball pincushion
• Magnet to catch stray pins
• Clover embroidery needle threader

Below are a few more in detail shots of everything.

 

My little magnet pin holder inside the metal tin. It works pretty perfect while I am on the go because i know any loose pins inside the tin will find their way to the magnet so it's not an explosion of pain every time I open it.

My wonderful little collection of cutters.

The favorite is my green pen scissors. They are tiny and fit on my cell phone or in my pocket and have been tested to be airplane safe so far. the ends are a bit rounded which is why I think they have been approved so many times. I got these little wonders off of Jetpens.com

So that covers what is in my embroidery kit!

It was also a nice exercise to get everything reorganized. There is a lot of organizing going on in my life right now with the move out of my studio and back home and prepping for summer and all the festivals and events at work. My biggest challenge is the balance between working on my fine art and working on my fashion for the summer show with the Alternative Fashion Mob.

I was very proud of myself for putting out some of my fine art watercolors at the last AGORA X this past weekend. All three pieces were sold to the same person and he really liked them. It was a sort of unbelievable moment for me because I've only ever sold fashion or craft work and never fine art work. I might of blurted out in his face an enthusiastic "REALLY?!"

Oh silly me and my tactfulness.

 

Sold bruise studies #1-3

Well I hope you all have a good week and I'll try to think of something fun for next week's post!

Cheers!

Wounded Work

 I'm not sure if you recognize these from a month or two ago. I started to work on these embroideries of bruises and scabs. Things I would say were just flesh wounds, nothing serious but still take time to heal, like feelings (oh, if my hubby saw me say that he would laugh so hard!). My hubby always tells me and my "artsy" friends things like, "why don't you go draw/knit/paint your feelings"
Anyways I digress. This was the project I started in response to my rejection from Graduate school, and I like it to much I am going to continue it. I found my inspiration from my local bestie Claire when she hit her arm really hard in weaving class and got this stellar bruise.
It made me think about the colors that erupt from that kind of injury and I continued to play on it and different formations. I'll tell you it is not a fun thing to research on google, bruises, scabs, scars, some nasty photos come up. I've been trying to take pictures of friend's injuries I most likely won't post them here because it's still gross, but not for me since it's personal.

Anyways I've mounted the few works I did on canvas and took some nice pictures of them for you all to gander at.

Bruised #2

Bruised #1

Bruise #2 Detail

Bruises are a funny things because if you pay attention closely there are all sorts of colors in there that you wouldn't except. Pops of red and purple for broken blood vessels, that greenish yellow tint around the edges and sometimes a serious black color depending how bad it was. I don't feel like I've got it down quite yet but I will keep working at it.

Scabs #1 and #2

Scab #1

Scab #2
 

I think that I have done a much better job with the Scabs. The irritating looking skin outline and pinkish scabbing texture worked well. I especially liked doing the crack in #1. I think they still give the sense of irritation and itchy that I wanted to convey. I had a really good scar but it was tiny and I think it was lost when I framing the other ones out.

I just got some excellent photos of some biking injuries a friend Jen had so I look forward to mapping those out on some muslin and getting started next week.

Welcome to Instagram

Now with the release of Instagram for the Droid I have jumped the bandwagon. It's so easy now to take those instant photos with just my camera phone. The quality isn't as good but it works for the instant. I like to think of it as digital Polaroids where the quality isn't so great but the memories are there. It captured my weekend in Chicago pretty decently but I also have photos from my DSLR to upload. That is the other convenient thing of this whole Instagram is that I don't have to pull out additional cords or mess with a SD card to bring it up on the web Instantly.

A new shape of eyeliner that I've been dabbling with. It makes me look a little bitchy and I am OK with that.

The now classic feeling of vintage Singer sewing machine wall from All Saints now open in Chicago.

My new buddy Gustav the Ram but I like to call him a Goat because it works better with his name.

My new shoes from Top Shop for only $70 on sale! this picture doesn't even do their shine justice.

The other nice thing about Instagram is that is much easier for me to remember to take progress photos of work that I have been doing. I certainly don't think I could do a very intensive tutorial with them but I like to be able to look back at different stages of progress. I can also take a snapshot to post as soon as I finish a work, then I can go back and DSLR it for a quality blog post.

My weaving from class before I took it off the loom.

Bruised #2 Embroidery

 

Scab #2 Embroidery

 

Scab #1 Embroidery

Beading loom work that I started the other night.

Yup you can get a lot shared via Instagram but I'm still working on my photography skills so I get better images for the blog without relaying on pretty filters. I'm going to try and limit myself to no more then one post a week that uses my instagram photos. Otherwise you can see them on this Tumblr, or off my Twitter.