Sample Project 2012 – December

Ta dah!  Sound of own trumpet being blown! This is the final instalment of my 2012 weekly sample project - textile titbits inspired by photos from the book “Underwater Eden, 365 Days” by Jeffrey L. Rotman.

Well at least I’ve completed something as intended this year!

 

Week 49: Many-Ribbed Hydomedusa

Navy felt base. Hand stitched fine wool thread overlaid with a fringe of textured yarn applied using the embellisher.

 

 

 

Week 50: Reef Table

Free machine embroidery on black cotton – cable stitch worked from the back with various thick threads on the bobbin (pearl cotton, Burmilana, Natesh).

 

 

 

 

Week 51: Triggerfish

White viscose fibres embellished onto pale blue felt, black felt silhouette of fish embellished on top.

 

 

 

Week 52: Sandy Lagoon, Jackson Reef

Background of beige felt embellished with scrim. French knots in various threads.

 

 

So that’s all folks… until the next one? I don’t suppose I’ll be able to resist doing this exercise again, for a seventh year – I’m addicted now. I’ve bought a 2013 Wild Nature Diary from The John Muir Trust, which has gorgeous (but scarily challenging) landscape and nature photos for each week. But can I really face it? Should l, is it healthy?! Watch this space…

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and creative 2013!

Happy Holidays

Patchwork Meadow Project

Have you heard about this? I came across it accidentally, I haven’t seen it promoted in any of my embroidery places. Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention and I’m the last to know, that wouldn’t surprise me at the moment.

Plantlife, the charity for wild plants, is creating a “giant Bayeux Tapestry of Britain’s plants”:    

Britain has a long lasting love affair with wildflowers, our native plants and flowers are scattered through out literature, history, art, folklore and fashion.

Plantlife’s unique project celebrates this heritage and will see us bring together the stories of Britain’s wildflowers in the form of a giant patchwork exhibition called the “Patchwork Meadow”.

They’re inviting submissions of 15cm fabric squares - sewn, woven, painted, printed, felted, beaded, or made of lace. The deadline is 31 March 2013.

The design can be a realistic depiction, a landscape or cultural setting, or an abstract design based on all or part of the plant. Plants can be flowers, grasses, trees, fungi, mosses, algae, and should currently grow wild in the UK countryside.

The completed piece will be shown in a series of exhibitions around the UK.

Full details of the project and how to take part are here.

Might make a nice little fun project for the winter? Though I could easily spend three months just trying to decide on my plant… and then which technique… Great for groups and schools too, pass it on!

Sample Project 2012 – November

So near the end now, but it’s been a struggle to get through this five sample month. For any new readers (hi!), each week I’m choosing one of the seven photos for that week in  “Underwater Eden – 365 Days” by Jeffrey L. Rotman as the starting point for some kind of textiley doodle. It’d make more sense if you could see the photos, but it wouldn’t be fair to rip them off -you’ll just have to get hold of the (really gorgeous) book!   

Here we go then…

 

Week 44: Tail of an Ornate Surgeonfish

Commercial felt blended and textured using the Embellisher machine.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 45: Tail of a Stoplight Parrotfish

Gathered/pleated fabrics.

 

 

Week 46: Gorgonian Coral

Zigzag stitch over thick wool and fine wire on Aquasol. Polyps made separately by free machining on Kunin felt then “cutting” out with a soldering iron.

 

 

 

Week 47: Colony of Sea Urchins

Machine embroidery using Flower Stitch attachment.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 48: Pelagic Octopus

Free machine embroidery with shaded thread on black felt.

 

 

 

Only four more weeks to go! So now the question is, should I do another weekly sample project in 2013, or would it maybe be more of an achievement to resist? After 6 years, perhaps it’s just a tad too obsessive? What do you think?