Hand Stitching Continued Summer 2020: Dimensional Stitches

Jill B.: "Unfurling" Rhododendron using a variety of dimensional stitches. 

This summer, a number of students from my beginning Hand Stitching Class (taught through The Art League School), asked that I offer a condensed version of my Hand Stitching Continued class. In this class, we continue to explore hand stitches...this time focusing on dimensional (often composite) stitches including needle weaving and buttonhole laces as well as using stitches to manipulate fabric to create dimensional effects. We also covered a variety of techniques to create stuffed forms. We used Nature as our muse throughout the class. I'm excited to show you the work produced during this three session version of the class. This is the first of three posts of student work. I also want to let you know that I will be teaching a five session version through the school starting on January 27. For more information about that class please go here. If you have questions about the January class, please feel free to leave a comment here.

_______

Before the class started, I asked students to find a muse or muses from Nature that they wanted to explore using stitch and fabric manipulation. A muse could be an actual physical object from nature, or photographs of natural objects or landscapes. Even related topics such as circular forms or concepts such as "unfurling" were explored.

Barbara B.: Exploring circular forms.

Our first class covered dimensional stitches including varieties of needle weaving and buttonhole laces.  During class time, students learned these and created a stitch sampler.

Jill B.: Stitch Sampler

Irene C.: Stitch Sampler

Myania M.: Stitch Sampler

Roberta A.: Stitch Sampler

Sherry W.: Stitch Sampler

Each week, students got a Journal Exercise and planned a Stitch Challenge piece inspired by their chosen muse, using techniques from that week's class. Some students really jumped in and explored even further!

Jill B. explored the concept of "unfurling". Below is her muse photo and Journal page. See the first photo in this post for the final stitched piece.

Roberta A. was inspired by the textures, colors and shapes found on this tree trunk.

Judy P. got inspired by the beauty found during beach walks and the land/seascapes of Cape May. She did some plein air stitching along with creating this awesome horseshoe crab.

Sherry was inspired by cowrie shells and fell in love with needle lace!

Heidi O. was inspired by the view of a  sunset over water while looking through a gate.

Myania M. dove right in to explore a variety of possible approaches to her wasp's nest muse. She experimented with both cloth and paper and jumped straight into working three-dimensionally (more to come!)

Hand Stitching Continued: Surface and Structure...Beginnings Recap

Annie G.: Detail from Muse-inspired piece. Annie's Muse was a flowering cactus.

The Hand Stitching Continued: Surface and Structure evening class (The Art League School in Alexandria, VA) is now in it's fifth week...time for a recap!

This class picked up where the Jumpstart in Hand Stitching left off. Hand Stitching Continued shifted into working in color, playing with more dimensional stitches, fabric manipulation and finally the creation of a free-standing sculpture.

This post covers work from the first three sessions: Combining and layering stitches from Jumpstart; Color Backgrounds and Choose Your Muse; and Dimensional Stitches.

The first night we played a little game...sticking the names of stitches covered in Jumpstart into a cup and pulling out pairs of stitches. Each student had there own stitch combinations to work with.

Mary M.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart.

Melanie H.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart.

Susan S.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart.

Susan S.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart

The second class focused on Color. For homework students were asked to Choose a Muse from Nature and answer a number of questions. Color choices were based on those found in each student's Muse.

Mary M.: Journal page about Muse. Mary's Muse was a photo of tree bark.

Mary M. Journal page about Muse.

Susan S.: Journal page about Muse. Susan's Muse was colorful stone.

After painting and printing a selection of fabrics, students then had the chance to create work inspired by their Muse.

Annie G. : Piece inspired by her flowering cactus Muse. With the exception of the burlap, all of these fabrics were painted and printed by Annie.

Annie G.: Edging detail.

Annie G.: Additional pieces inspired by the hand painted fabrics and stitch combinations.

Annie G.: Stitch details.

Susan S.: Susan's Muse and Muse-inspired piece.

In the third class, students learned a selection of dimensional stitches and had the opportunity to play and combine them.

Kate M.: Dimensional stitches sampler.

Mary M.: Dimensional stitches sampler

Susan S.: Dimensional stitches sampler.

The next post will focus on fabric manipulation techniques using stitch.

A Story in the Making: Muses

This weekend, I'm holing myself up in the studio to work on samples for an upcoming class called, A Story in the Making: Creating Story Cloth with Print and Stitch. Unlike most of my classes, which are technique-driven, this class focuses on creating a story...actually letting the story unfold... while working with surface design techniques.

Today, I'm starting with a possible jumpstart for the class. I'm going to ask them to bring in objects that speak to them. This could be any object that catches their attention. I had a look in my china cabinet and these two objects caught my eye...

Stone carving of a rooster and a sunflower that I bought at some point for $24. Quite honestly, I don't remember buying it!

An heirloom. My great grandfather's prayerbook. It's not in the best shape, but I love the carving (bone or ivory), the maroon velvet and metalwork on the cover.

In addition, I want there to be some random element...a little bit of unpredictability. I decided to close my eyes and flip through The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images published by Taschen.

This is the page I landed on...

As I did all of the above last night, I had time to do a bit of brainstorming and connecting the elements and starting a story in my head. I wrote and scribbled sketches (more of that in a future post).

I started to think about the rooster in the stone carving who is most likely to become the protagonist of the story. I thought of Chagall's roosters.

I thought about a book I have on paper cutting (a topic that seems to be swirling around in my head lately) that has some rooster designs.

Then, I realized that there were other roosters and hens lurking about the house.

A wonderful and very colorful mother hen with her chicks stitched on burlap, from Haiti

Two angry roosters embroidered on cotton, from Mexico.

So, now I am gathering my thoughts and heading for the studio.

I want to keep an open mind about the story as I play with the fabric paints, create blocks and stencils and start in.

Wish me luck!