Reviving an old project

I am caught up with the TAST project and I am painting during the days when I am not working ( see my painting blog), so with the dismal TV selection, its time to work on something else in the evenings.  I have a number of projects I have nagging away in the background.  2 of the them are related to the Bead Journal project which I participated in 2007, 2008 and 2010.  The first one I managed to complete but in 2008 I definitely bit off more than I could chew.  I still have 2 months of 2010 to complete but I have decided to continue with the journal I started in 2008.

The above image might give you a clue to the theme and its one I have been tackling since I was 11 when school doctor told my Mum I was too fat.   Its an ongoing struggle and in 2008 I was attending WW.  In the meetings I would take notes and doodle.  I decided I would bead each week's notes.  So I was planning 52 pages.  I think I managed 8!  The additional idea behind the beaded pages was making them into a sort prayer flag based on the Buddhist tradition in Nepal.

Anyway  after 14 months and only achieving about 8 plus 2 starts, I put away all the little sketch books, the printed motifs ( from the sketchbooks) and cut out flags in a box, until now.

The issue with the project first time around was basically it not suitable for a completely beaded project, I had to use embroidery as part of the process.  Some pages had no bead elements I could use at all.  Finally, the major reason I gave up was because it was closely linked to losing weight. By the end of my time at WW I had lost 27lbs and then gain that back plus more due a change in my thyroid medication. Doing the pages just made me depressed thinking all the time of the uphill struggle I have with the problem.

Now I am in a better place.  I still have the weight issue and the thyroid problem. My medication has changed and some of the weight has come off. I have accepted I will never be thin, slim or young again. I have other medical issues which have turned up, one linked my weight but the other not. Both need me to change my attitude towards food.  My aim now is just to be as fit as I can be with  a change in my diet without feeling deprived and exercise.

Now I look  at the pages and just see an art project, not a personal goal.  So I will dedicate the rest of the year's evenings to getting further along with this project.  First decision, embroidery will be the main way of working these up. It fits in nicely with the TAST project. There will be some beading. There will be no deadline. Once I am happy with how much I have done, it will be finished. There might be 52 pages but more likely somewhat less than that.  I need to work out how to sew better flags! I am not seamstress than might be the biggest challenge :)

back on my Bike!

Cable chain stitch

This week I kept it simple.  Once I got the hang of this stitch - left over, under right for the knot, I found this stitch very easy and actually much nicer than I thought.  With my first example I spiralled the stitch and added French knots in the centre of the chain.  It was surprising effective.

For my second sample I kept it simple and direct

I think this is stitch 11 on this panel as there have at least 2 breaks. Week 25 on Pintangle blog  13 on first panel, 11 on this panel and 2 breaks, so 2 more on this panel and back to the first panel as I have decided to keep to 2 panels.  With this one, apart from the border which I am still not keen on, I am quite happy with the progress I have made.  The first panel I will have to work out some issues with it, ie the colour balance.  It will all work out in the end, I'm sure.

Buttonhole wheel

Well, I got a flying start to this week's stitch and by Thursday had thought I would be easily be finished by this time, Sunday night but then our stove decided to die on us. Thought I would managed some more today with the delivery of replacement, only for the replacement to have a fault so another trip to the store.

So this is not finished by near enough.  Getting neat circle is just impossible for me but I did enjoy experimenting with this stitch.  I managed to incorporate  Bullion and French knots.  I like the effect to overlapping the wheels as it looked very lacy.

Almost half way though this project and the more I go along, the more I find I am relaxing as I sew.

Eight stitches

So this week, it was a catch up week for TAST and the challenge was to use up to 8 stitches in one piece.  As I was caught up I decided to do the challenge.

I decided from the outset that I was going to be restricted by the size of my frame so a 8" circle and that I wouldn't have a design.  Basically I doodled with stitches.  I ended up doing fly, running, stem, chain butterfly, couching, french knot, bullion and detached chain.


Must admit I enjoyed this challenge but like all doodles its hard to say, stop!  That is  why this is posted on Tuesday rather than Sunday like I planned.  Even as I stopped I was thinking, I could do even more.  

catch up stitches

Well, I am managing to stay on track with the stitches but not with this blog, so time to up date.

first stitch - Bullion   I found this stitch very hard at first and had to try several different types of needle but in the end I found the most unlikely of needles worked the best.  A soft sculpture doll needle.  Once I started using this I could vary the number of twists included and still have the control needed to keep the stitch flat once the thread went through the middle. 

Next stitch up - Buttonfly chain.  This was a very easy stitch but I am sad to say I really didn't explore it that much. 

Lastly the knotted Cretan stitch which in the book I have is also called knotted insertion.  Once I got the hang of the stitch I found it quite easy to do but I did have to watch my tension on the last part of the stitch, sometimes it was too loose.

So far I much happier with this piece as I have restricted the colours although I still don't like the border. Not sure if it is the combination of colours  or the stitch its self which I found to be untidy (my stitching) and not attractive.  Another decision I have made as I am not sure I like the blue of the material, is to continue adding stitches to both pieces- total of 52 stitches- 26 for each panel, rather than the original 13 stitches to each piece which would have created 4 separate panel.  So I will have to explore the spaces between the spirals, I think it will work much better that way.  Eventually I will find a way to stretch it like a canvas and then add a mount before framing them both.

So this week I was kind of disappointed that we are having a week's rest as that means we will be continuing this project to the end of Jan 2013 or even later if we miss additional weeks. No really a bit deal but I  am going to put all the beads and embroidery aside for a while once I finish this project to concentrate on my painting.  In the end I hope to incorporate all three into my work as I really don't see this is a craft but part and parcel of my art work.  

Anyway, I have decided to take part in the small additional challenge of using up to 8 stitches on one single piece to be completed in a week.  I will write about this in my next post. 

Crossed buttonhole and half chevron

So I am keeping up with TAST and this week was half Chevron and last week was crossed buttonhole stitch.

 I did the border of the piece with variations of crossed buttonhole which took me a while to figure out.







 Even then I was not happy with it as it became very uneven and to be honest a bit ugly, especially with the close up photos

 I will live with it but I think its a stitch I will avoid in the future 

I will be adding French knots to all 4 borders

This is what it looks like with all 4 borders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week's stitch was half chevron stitch.  Again I had difficulty to visualising this stitch but the outcome I was really happy with.   I think I will explore this a bit more before the next stitch

French Knots, Stem stitch and Wheatear

Just a short post to show my progress with TAST. I used dislike French knots but now I could go on doing them all day. Once I relaxed and didn't put the pressure on myself to make them perfect every time, they seem to actually get better.  I think this piece will have French Knots all over it. I like the colour combination for this panel as well.  Haven't quite finished with the Wheatear stitch but thought I would post on time for a change.  First time I have actually been ahead of the curve for this challenge. Hope I can keep it up 

French Knots

stem stitch

Wheatear and French knots

French Knot, stem stitch and Wheatear

Wheatear

continuing panel 1

Wow its been a long time since I have posted, so I should update.  To be honest really haven't been that busy as the creative bug has been very reluctant to show its head recently. I know you should just go to the studio and work through it but actually getting there is the difficult part.

Anyway, I have been plodding along with Take a stitch Tuesday (TAST), its not my most inspired work :(   I started off with 14 count aida which I transferred a pattern to. However, I soon came to the conclusion that wasn't going to work.  So I went through my stash of material scraps and picked a tied dyed fabric which is blue and brown.  My plan was and still is to do 13 samples stitches on each piece of material which I will then mount on a piece of canvas and stretch like a canvas. The one thing I will change with #2, is to restrict the colours I use as I realised that I wasn't liking the colour I used in the first piece.  Anyway below are pictures of #1. It is still incomplete but if I waited until it was complete I might never post it which isn't really what the challenge is about.  I have not varied the thread, using my stash of pearl cotton and it is purely stitching, no embellishments, no beads! 

I will admit the fabric is not my favourite but I really wanted to explore the more abstract side of stitching.  I will be more diligent with my posting in the coming weeks as I have reorganised my work space and hopefully that will be make it more inviting to work in.

Jeremy Cruey

There will new posts about my own work in the next week as I am working on a few things at the moment but in the meantime I am posting a couple of pictures of a small sculpture I got at Christmas.  It was created by my daughter's very talented brother-in- law,  Sculptor Jeremy Cruey. 

He doesn't have a website yet but you can see more of his work at  High-Mountain-Ironworks facebook page

here is one of his larger sculptures.  Mermaid (pictured unfinished)

Its the end of Novemeber but I have only just decided August is finished

I actually finished it at the end of October before I made a brief visit to the UK but I at the time, I wasn't convinced  as it was so unlike the calendar image I was using but when I got back, I just knew it was complete.

As usual I felted the ground of this image but instead of just using wool fibres, used some synthetic materials I had collected in my time, working at Joann's.  Some of them didn't work but it was simple enough to pull them out and try something else.  The bottom half of the piece is covered with shell pieces but the rocks on the right hand are some paper beads I made especially for this project.  I was pretty pleased with them :).  Below is the image I was working from and as you can see the rocks are probably the only thing that are similar. However, I like the feeling of depth I have managed to create in this work and would say its one of the more successful months.  The sky is pretty ominous with the lurex material peeping out like some alien arriving. I love the way the synthetic materials have managed to create some movement in the body of water.

I was going to add more beads to the cliff face but decided I loved the machine stitching too much to cover it up, so in the end, just added a few beads between the cliff and the sky. 

Image removed.- see this blogger's post on copyright -

Only 4 months left to do but then again only one month to go of the year.  I have felted the beginnings of the Sept, Oct and Nov but being realistic, know they wont be complete until at least the end of January.

July - Finally!

Almost the end of October and finally I have decided July  is finished.  I actually finished all bar one bead and the edging  in August but I thought maybe it needed more.  However, I was unsure as I knew I didn't want to bead it other than the tree when I started but I was tempted to bead some of the background.

So I got into September and that is really where the creative block hit me slam bang in the the head. That story will be told in the next couple of days.  However, I due to that, all creative work came to a shuddering  halt  and I didn't  ever go into my work space for weeks - even the door made me nervous.  Finally on Friday, I entered the cave of fear and just looking at the July piece, I knew it was finished all bar the one right bead plus a sequin which had been selected before I had even started and the edging.


This afternoon, I hope to complete August  and  September started.  Now I am back into the swing of it, I know I will complete this journal by the end of December.

Edited after looking at my photo files and realising I was wrong - this is only July! So once I have finished August in the next couple of days - hopefully this afternoon, I will still have 4 more months to do.  However, its still doable but its not a race. However, I do want to start painting seriously come Jan 1st 2011!

JUNE Page at last

This was started way back in May and only now in last grasps of August has it been finished.   It was delayed mainly because I wasn't  sure how to approach the rock face of the waterfalls shown in the Calendar picture

Image removed see this bloggers post on copyright


I knew I didn't want to use beads as I figured that would make it very heavy and I really wasn't sure how they would compare to the sequins I knew I was going to use in this piece.

Embroidery seemed to the answer but which stitch?  I looked at my trusty stitch sampler by Lucinda Ganderton  and came across the Japanese daring stitch. I quickly set to task with making a sampler as I wanted to be confident (1) I could do it and (2) it would work. 



Even with this pass I could see the possibilities of this stitch and decided to stitch over it with more Japanese darning stitch but in a different colour  and it became even more dimensional.



With that little exercise out of the way I was able to concentrate on page and overall I am very satisfied with this page.



July has been started whilst working out the ending of the last page and should be finished by the end of the week. August not started but will be started by the end of the week - so for a change I am feeling pretty much up to date with this project.

May Journal Page

Well, I am not happy with it but figure I need to finish otherwise I will be here until the new year before I decide its 'finished'.  Always the hardest part of doing any art work is when is it finished and when that piece is not 'happy', it never seems to be finished.

The original calendar photograph on  first looking at it seems to be one mass of very orange stone  with a tree standing strong against the elements. Seeing on this page it doesn't look so orange and much more defined but the actual photograph I was working from, is much more densely orange.


Image removed. See this bloggers's post on copyright

Then you look closely at its really full of life with grasses and other small trees.  So I started out with the overall image but as I worked on I began to see all the other elements  which is where my problems started I think.  As I added to it the more muddy it got (just like a painting) and the heavier it got.(just weight it and it nearly ½lb!).

So I have decided to leave it where it is - for now

April 2010

This has been sitting waiting for a few weeks, whilst I settle with it.  Like previous months I have needle felted a background on to a piece of craft felt, then I  did some free machine embroidery to create the initial structure of the image.  Then I basically built up the texture with beads and embroidery using some fuzzy wool I pick up cheaply over the years. Its quite a heavy piece!

This is the image I started with . Image removed see this blogger's post on copy right

May is still a work in progress and given that I have decided to bead the whole surface of the piece it might well be a while before it is complete But here is a teaser

March

 I have decided that this is the completed version for March for now.  That isn't to say that its finish but for now it is, much like a painting.  Sometime, you need to leave something for awhile and then decide if its finished, usually if you feel that way, there is something there that is nagging but its unclear what.  That is the way for this one.

This is the picture I started out with and there is no way I captured the luminosity of this scene but I tried.- Image removed  see this bloggers post on copyright

The process began with felting very broadly onto a piece of craft felt, then some embroidery and free machine stitching, finishing with the beading, followed by more embroidery. 

I think stretching it (the process has warped the base fabric) and providing a backing sheeting might make it clearer, we will see.

As a teaser, here is the beginning of April which is actually much further on and probably as close to being finished as this March is.