Moving time!

Ok – I am moving my blog again – but this should be the last time (she said hopefully).

Having self hosted my garden blog with wordpress on my own website – I have decided to do the same again with my textile blog.

I never really settle into a template with the wordpress hosted blogs. By self hosting I can have more flexibility with the look and what I can put on it – in terms of slide-shows etc etc.

SO … All my stuff from my old blogger blog, plus this wordpress blog is now at

An Artist’s Garden Studio

Please drop by and take a look and let me know how you get on.

I have imported my “old blog”

I have imported my old blogger blog into this one – but it is taking me a little while to go through updating the images.

Also – for those who left comments on the blogger blog – the links have not been imported.

I will over the next month or so be transferring the whole lot to a self hosted WordPress blog for more flexibility.

As I am still deciding which template to use:-

Do leave a comment if your preference is black background / white writing (like this and my older blogger one – I think it shows off the images better)

Or white background and black writing – the same format as my Artist’s Garden

Don’t lurk let me know what your preference is

Well …

Well – I feel that I have spent enough time on this piece – not one of my better ones, now to decide:-

1) Plop in ready made frame

2) Have it framed.

Decisions, decisions!

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Click on image for a larger view.

Grrrr

Dobby may have thought that my sleeping figure looked like a “Duck billed Platypus” I just thought she didn’t show up too well – so have spent a while messing around.

Covered her with dark fabric – then ripped it off

Machine stitched in a darker colour – then un-picked it

(you get the picture).

Anyway this afternoon she got a coat of dye – so she does show up against the background but possibly looks more like a large boulder than a sleeping figure – (sigh) Tomorrow I will give her some eyes …. maybe (big sigh)

Artist’s Friend

All artists need a friend who they can turn to for a critique of their work.  A friend who will say more than “Oh that’s lovely”.

When I lived down south – my Artist’s friend was Linda – but now we live 100’s of miles apart.  Although we still communicate about our work – it is not the same as being able to physically see the work and each other.

I have however, discovered a new “Artist’s friend” who has a creative eye and a good sense of what works and what doesn’t.

With this in mind – I took the “margarine goddess” (previous post) around to her house earlier in the week.

Unfortunately – (or fortunately) my friend told me what I knew in my heart of hearts – but what was reluctant to admit to myself.

She said;-

“Karen the piece is lovely – but you cannot put it in that frame – it needs to be properly framed, with at least a triple mount”

I knew that.  I knew that the piece was worthy of spending a bit of money on the frame to make it look a million dollars, but I had got myself into the mind set of doing pieces to fit frames I all-ready had.

It is not the first time this has happened, the framing bill for artists is a nightmare – you create the work, then get it framed, and then you may or may not sell it.  This means you have very expensive “frames” sitting around the studio – which you have paid for.

Periodically I try selling work that is not framed, but a lot of people get concerned about the dust on unframed textiles or they don’t feel that they are buying “art” if it is not framed in a traditional manner.

Then – I make the mistake of seeing some reasonably priced, nicely made frames and buy them thinking – “Oh I can make something that will fit in that” and for some reason this rarely works.

Good framing makes a deal of difference. Good framing is when the textile and the frame work as one cohesive piece of art.

So am glad my friend told me the truth – and I envy my framer when I come to pay my  bill for this batch of work.

The image above is a detail from another piece ….. that might fit in the now empty frame!

When is a piece finished?

Sometimes it is difficult to know when a piece is finished.  Often when I think a piece is done – I put it out of sight for a while, then I can come back to it with fresh eyes and I will see any glaring omissions or imbalances.

As a working artist – I have to balance the amount of time I spend on a piece with the “asking price” and this piece is a good example of that.

I love hand stitching, especially seeding and french knots – I could seed and french knot until the cows came home, or until  I make a hole in the end of my stitching finger.  I know,  I know – that’s why thimbles were invented.  However, I have decided that I need a summer thimble and a winter thimble – my hands were so cold in the studio to-day that my thimble kept falling off.

So, when I wore a hole in my finger, I decided to stop the french knots and running stitches on this piece – to work at it anymore would just mean that I was going to pay myself about 6p an hour – assuming that it sells.  In all honesty, on this piece, another few hours of hand stitching would not add to the work.

So when DO you decide when a piece is finished?  I think for me there is a whisper in my head that says “enough” and I stop.  The enough can be made up of many things, enough hours spent on one piece.  To do more would be to “overwork” the piece. Enough, because suddenly I have ideas for the next piece and want to move on.

On reflection – I think it is easy to overwork a piece, my rule of thumb – is that I stand back from the work and squint at it. There is the fine line between the stitching looking spotty, or blurry – if nothing jumps out too harshly then the seeding and knotting are probably right and then you have probably reached the “Enough” point.

This is just popped into the frame with no mount-board or backing – just to give an idea of how it will look.

The other great thing about hand stitching is that it gives me time to think.  To-day I was thinking how nice it would be to give this piece a name with “Flora” in the title – she is the goddess of flowers in Roman mythology, unfortunately, in the U.K. that word is associated with a well known brand of margarine now.

Confusion ….

Sometimes there comes a point where confusion and chaos reign – as they did to-day in the studio.

The piece of work looks (as it often does at this stage) like it maybe going nowhere fast.

My studio looks like a volcano has errupted spewing out fabric, paper and thread everywhere.

I knew it was time to

STOP

REGROUP

TIDY UP …

… When I found myself cutting thread with a stanley knife!

(As I haven’t seen my embroidery scissors for a few days now)

(For those who mentioned how nice that little deer was on yesterdays post – I have left a link to the artist in the comments).

No Snow in my Studio!

I  finished yesterdays piece to my satisfaction – I will have to give more thought on the “how to do it” before I embark on a bigger version.  If you want to see a detail, it is posted on my daily image blog “The Turning Year”.

So moving on.  The next piece has to fit in a frame which I all-ready have.  I don’t really like doing work to fit the frame – but sometimes needs must.  I have forgotten to note down the dimensions of the frame and will add these at a later stage.

When I do quick designs for a piece of work, I have a crayon that has multi-coloured lead, this is so useful as I feel it represents the colour change in embroidery threads really well.

The next stage was to make the ground fabric.  Currently I am using quite a complex layering method to make a background. Using fabric, paper, tissue, stamping, glue, dye, and felt.

This ground fabric will be covered with organza and sheers, painted bondaweb and stitch

The result is a textile which will have (fingers crossed) a depth and richness.

My goddess has made a welcome return – although in this piece she will be in a garden.

In the Studio … again

Well January was rather a wipe out for me – but back in the studio again now, determined to finish the little piece that I had started in my last post.

This small piece is a “test” piece for a larger piece of work – in terms of technical “how to”.  I want to do a picture where you “look through doors” to a glimpsed view and here is how today went.

Not enough “view” the doors are too closed.

Too much view – the doors are too open.

TO get the “foreshortened view” that I was after was proving a bit problematic, as doors and the image were made from one piece of fabric.  Next step – cut the doors off! (eeeek)

(This would be why I subtitle any workshops I teach “Destroy to Create)

Ummmm – not sure – place the doors back in, but tucked behind the ground fabric, which makes them smaller – and gives a view of the image behind. After rather a lot of un-picking of stitching ….

I think I will sleep on it.

A Finished Piece …

I finished this little piece a week or so ago, but I have let it “sit” for a while to make sure I didn’t want to add anything and to-day I decided it was OK – although as yet it has no name.

(detail, click on image for link to larger picture)

The finished work is approximately 20cms x 20cms (7 inches x 7 inches), so quite small.

Materials used include tissue paper, tissutex,  bond-a-web, fibres, copper, beads, wood, leaves and hand stitching.