This is a photograph of the interior of an abanded school in Chernobyl. It no longer exists but there is something of what was once captured here. I found it very moving.
The patterns and colours of the peeling paint.
The face of the woman in the mural. Such beauty in the middle of all that destruction.
I found these images in a magazine some time ago and am not sure of their source.
I came across this blog post at One Flew Over showing this wonderful display of crocheted pot holders on display at Calico & Ivy in Sydney.
I just love them. I can see this is something I am going to have to try.
After working with Jenny Adin-Christie, a master of her art, I have started to look again at some embroidery works that I admire. The Japanese artist Takashi Iwasaki is one one who uses embroidery as well as Painting, Drawing, Collages, Sculptures, Prints and Abbies to express his creativity.
How do you compare these two artists? I don't think you can. Takashi's work in built around very simple stitching but wonderful colour and design. Jenny's work uses highly developed technical embroidery skills, and in the case of her white work where every thing is stripped back to design her technical stitching skills make the design sing.
But both are artists in the true sense of the word, only they bring different interpretation of their inspiration. It is us, the viewer who respond and make judgements and these are going to be as different from each other as people are different.
While waiting for the barge to go over to the island the other day I saw a whole flock of pied oyster catchers sitting on the rocks near the boat ramp. They are very distinctive birds. Black with a while breast and bright red legs beak and eyes.
I think that these birds would work well as an applique or mini quilt. I'm not sure about their use in an embroidery. I haven't got time to do any of these things so I have just done a line drawing for future reference.
Their colours really stood out against the rocks on this grey day. I have included a PDF of the drawing.
My daughter and I took a drive up to the Sunshine Coast to buy some fabrics. I wasn't very pleased with the selection so didn't buy very much, she did a lot better. We stopped for lunch in Malaney where the dogs lay around bored waiting for their owners to finish their shopping.
And I found this little Indian purse in an Op shop for $2.00. It looks as though it is a piece of recycled fabric which I intend to recycle again. Into what? I'm not sure yet. All the work that has gone into this embroidery and then not valued. An emboirderer's worst nightmare.
I also found some beautiful cheese. Worth the trip just for that.
That's the title in my Spanish embroidery book. I thought it was Chicken Scratch.
Then I found another old Mez Lehrmuster embroidery sheet that had lots of variations of stitches to use on gingham.
Completed stitches
How to construct the stitches
Completed stitches
How to construct the stitches
I have only seen this fabric in tea towels and am not sure if you can buy it today. Still the designs are nice.
How to construct the stitch followed by the completed stitch.
How to construct the stitch followed by the finished stitch.
This book is titled '236 Puntos' (Stitches) . I wonder what the 236 means? It coast 50 pesetas and was published in Barcelona. It includes illustrations of borders, smocking, seam finishes and various stitches. There are some very interesting designs in this book and as with most books of this era they assume that you know what stitches to use in the design.
There were a couple of examples of Lagartera embroidery designs. I bought a copy of a book back in the 1970's which I still have of this kind of embroidery.
And there was a recent publication by the South Australian Embroiderers Guild.
There have been a number of articles in magazines but all in all there is not a lot about this kind of embroidery in English. These are scans of the designs from the vintage book from Spain.
Only the centre image seems to be the type of stitching that is classified as Lagartera Embroidery. The top image says border in polychrome and the bottom one is an antique pattern from the region. Still it is interesting to find something new on this style of embroidery.
This is an interesting site that shows how it is stitched
I came across another old book from the Anchor Needlework Series. Book No5 price 1/-. From the designs in the book I would think that it was published in the 1940's or 50's. Not all of the pages are there and many of the stitches seem to have been inspired by Indian Embroidery.
There are two little birds that have been used as a design to stitch around the hem of a babies dress. The stitching is very fine and delicate and there are 12 birds around the hem of the dress. I have enlarged the images so that I could see the stitching. I think that it would work as a larger desgin stitched in a thicker thread and would make a great motive on a tote bag, although the eyelets and drawn thread work might have to go.
I have redrawn the birds so that they are around the 5" size . Download Anchor birds
Another thing I have to stitch.
I was looking for some leaf shapes to put into my TAST sampler and stumbled upon this site. I wasn't sure what I was looking at at first and then I realised that these indeed were leaves. Leaves that had been dried and then a pattern cut into them, much the same way as a paper-cut. They are just so beautiful. (When you go into the site if you scroll down on any page you will find an English translation explaining the methods etc.)
Another interesting point is that there are no set prices. If you want to buy a piece you decide the price that you think it is worth.
