Black Bears

My poor friend Russ of Tinyfolk has been waiting forever for me to finish the album art for his new release, Black Bears. Thankfully, it is at last complete.



It is based on Pamela Smith's artwork for "The World" card in the Rider-Waite tarot deck.

The piece was freehand embroidered on pieces of linen cloth which I recycled from my day job in a paper conservation lab -- the linens had originally been used as a reinforcement backing on maps.

I freehand embroider / refuse to draw patterns on my cloth because I am crazy, and like being frustrated for long periods of time.

You can pre-order the album here. Beware: you will have the song "I was a black bear" in your head for the rest of your life. Or maybe that's just because I have been working on this embroidery for so long ... ?

Almost an update - also, need your help

I have been so busy with landlord and housing related stupidity that I have had virtually NO time to do anything art-wise. Which is pretty unfortunate, because I have a lot of stuff I really ought to be working on. Luckily I found a GREAT apartment, dangerously located just next to an antique shop, and am settling in nicely. I hope to get back to some of my projects soon!

One thing I have been doing is researching for an upcoming show. I'm really interested in embroidered game boards right now. I've found a lot of great examples in my searches, and one in particular is a fascinating mystery. I found this great image on a game blog



with no information about the image other than that it is a game called Chinesenspiel, a variant of Pachisi.

Does anyone know anything about this board? It's definitely a textile, looks to be embroidered but I can't find a better image to be entirely positive. I'm not even sure it's a functional Chinesenspiel board because it differs slightly from the other examples pictured. I don't enough about this particular type of game to say. I think it's really beautiful though and I'd love to know more about where it came from or who did it!

Punch Needle & Miscellany

Yesterday was a busy day but I really wanted to get a post in!

First I want to take a minute and plug my friend Jerry's sewing blog, Jerry Lee's Western Wear. It's really awesome, and I'm not just saying that because I know him! He writes about sewing techniques and showcases new projects, and his embroidery and hand-tailored western shirts are truly inspiring and worth a look.

Today I have a little more time and thought I'd talk about why I chose to do the terrifying baby automaton embroidery in reverse punch needle. In a lot of ways my choice doesn't particularly make sense. It's a technique that, right side up, is designed to showcase looped pile, and it leaves little threads all over the wrong side. (These can actually be carefully pulled through the fabric if you really want to, but I ended up deciding I liked the look.) The wrong side basically just looks like a running stitch, so why do it?

Here is an image of the "back" of my embroidery which, if I were doing it as a proper punch needle embroidery, would be the front.



If this were truly the front of the embroidery there would be no little threads -- this is where I pulled some through. Yes, I actually did "clean" up my "right" side. (This is getting confusing!) There would have been a lot more loose threads if I had not done this.

For me, the choice to use this technique was a combination of speed and stitch size. I really, REALLY love tiny tiny stitches, but the back tends to get pretty lumpy when you do small stitches with something like a backstitch. Using the wrong side of the punch needle embroidery keeps things flatter and tidier on top.

As for speed, this is negotiable. A lot of people find punch needle tedious and difficult. To them I say -- I may not be the person to ask. I tend to work very slowly and meticulously and so my normal work speed is snail-like. To me punch needle seems fast, but to you it may not.

A big part of being able to go quickly with punch needle is having excellent tools. A cheap, dull needle will slow you down, as will an inadequate hoop or the wrong fabric.

Some quick tips for a not-as-frustrating punch needle experience:

1) Don't buy the cheapest needle, get the Clover punch needle. For this embroidery I used the tiny one-strand needle, though for the avocado.jpg embroidery I used the 3-strand version. There is also a 6-strand version.

2) You need a good, tight hoop that holds the fabric extremely taut.

If you can't find a good hoop, I've made do with a normal hoop, the larger part of which I glued thin slivers of wine cork to at intervals around the hoop. This helped create more friction between the hoops to hold the fabric better. You'll still have to pull it tight every few minutes, but it buys you a little more time. However, you will have to pull it tight occasionally no matter how good your hoop.

3) I've had the most luck with a good, tightly woven cotton fabric.

4) Technique: the best tip I can offer is: don't lift your punch needle. Ever. Punch it through the fabric, pull it back through verrrrry gently, and scratch it across the top of the fabric to where you want to make the next stitch.

In other news, I'm ALMOST DONE with the rug I've been working on for very nearly a year. Within the week I should have a pic!

terrifying baby automaton embroidery

terrifying baby automaton embroidery
Originally uploaded by thirdpersonpossessive

My lack of posting does not mean I have not been hard at work! More pics to come very soon. Here's a punch needle embroidery I just finished. From a drawing I did based on a photograph in this awesome book.

avocado.jpg punch needle embroidery

avocado.jpg punch needle embroidery
Originally uploaded by thirdpersonpossessive

Punch needle embroidery is soooooooo fun! I am still getting acquainted with the process.

It is the closest thing to drawing with thread, in my opinion. It's just so much faster than traditional embroidery, and even the way you hold the punch needle -- it's more like holding a pencil, than a needle.

I also love the effect of the looped pile of embroidery floss. It's so shiny and catches the light in such an interesting way, completely unlike the way the wool or acrylic pile of a larger rug would. Which is basically what punch needle embroidery is -- it's like making a little punch-hooked rug with embroidery floss.

This embroidered letter I wrote last summer is also done using punch needle, but I left it with the "wrong" side as the right side!



I look forward to experimenting more with this technique and am also very interested in chatting with anyone else who has tried it, as it doesn't seem like very many people know about it.