Thinking of Designs

Even as the smaller Peacock Roundel develops, the large Victorian mirror piece is playing around the edges of my mind.  After working up and discarding a few designs, its doing me a lot of good to be at a distance from it and working on something akin to it but not connected.  This is giving me some perspective and some space for my subconscious to fiddle with details.  I took the cardboard backing out of the frame to use as a template. There were a lot of directions I could go, but it wasn't until a friend commented on one of my Pinterest pins that I made a leap about what to do with that odd sort of squashy top arch.  It was then I made the connection between the late Victorian time period and Art Nouveau.  Suddenly the arch made sense.  Now I have gone haring off after Alfonse Mucha and Gisbert Combaz.  Most people know Mucha's graceful, sinuous women and flowers - very distinctive.  And there's that arch again.

And the clear simple composition and mass dynamics of Gisbert Combaz fit exactly with this technique and the visual impact I want it to have. 

Mix it up with a little of Bilibin's Firebird,

an Art Deco book cover 

and colors from Medieval Persian mosaics,

and perhaps a Palekh box or two

I think I have a plan in sight......

Ordering Thread

When I began wanting to learn tambour, I tried a variety of threads and 3 different hook sizes.  I bought button hole twist and top stitch thread and small crochet thread and various other kinds of odd bits.  Vintage Coats & Clark silk button hole twist worked very nicely, but its vintage and hard to get because they don't make it anymore. *sigh* When I did the small Peacock Rangoli piece, I had picked up that variegated turquoise thread at JoAnn's Fabrics.  It was nice, but they only carry a few colors in it.  To get the right colors I had to cut the color spectrum apart and only use a piece here and a piece there.  It worked well for that small piece but it would be a major pain for anything larger.  It was that variegated turquoise that I picked up and used for the stem of the lotus sampler - just because it was pretty and I wanted to see how it would do.  Using that with a size 120 hook was the perfect combination.  Maybe that was the secret that made it so easy.  Maybe the 90 hook I was using was too small for the thread and it kept splitting the strand.  So I dug out the ball and got the specifics of what brand and size it was and searched it to see what other colors it comes in.  I totally hit the jackpot. 

The thread is Lizbeth brand #20 tatting thread, sold online only by Handy Hands Tatting Supply http://www.hhtatting.com/lizbeth-thread.cfm  .  Its not a question of what size; they carry all standard sizes 3, 10, 20, 40, and 80.  Its not a problem of what color they carry; they carry well over 100 colors in all the sizes with shades of colors available.  Its not a question of quality, 100% Egyptian cotton, pre-shrunk, dye fast, fire polished, tightly twisted.  I was in thread heaven.  One of the things I like best about embroidery is going to the store and seeing row after row of all those delicious colors.  I have boxes and boxes of DMC floss on my studio shelves that I pull out like an painter's palette.  What I wasn't really sure about was what all the colors would look like in real lighting.  the only way to tell was to dive in and get the assortment I needed.  strictly speaking their prices are more than reasonable, but getting that initial selection of any new fiber can get pricey.  So I broke the piggy bank and splurged. 

The next nice thing to say about them is their excellent delivery time.  The order went in on Thursday and by Monday it was all here.  And they certainly did not disappoint.  Full spectrum, deep rich colors that harmonize beautifully with each other.  It was like a captured rainbow.  Yes.  This is definitely going to be a pleasure.  Even our cat, Godiva seems to approve.

I can guarantee that, as time and projects go on, I will be ordering more of their colors.

Piecing the Applique

Once I got the basics set on the piece, it is helping me keep my eye straight on the design.  It was now time to put the applique pieces on the peacock's body to give it the background color to stand out from the background and the frame.  I appliqued the colored areas using dupioni silk.  I love the idea of really rocking the colors, and that worked out so well on the Lotus Paisley Box Lid that its something I wanted to repeat.  I found a lot of inspiration for this in the Tenmakers of Cairo video where they demonstrate their technique for applique - brilliant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zkCcQqWp0 .  I enjoy doing needle turn applique and those tiny pins make it so much easier than regular ones. 

Once the applique was in, I finished the border as far as I could and I could really see where it was going. 

A New Design

Things always seem to start simple, but, at least in my Universe, it doesn't take them long to become extravagant.  Phillip calls this sort of thing my "Cistine Chapels".  Okay, I admit it; he's right on the mark.  A friend gave me a broken Victorian mirror a couple of years ago.  When it hit the floor the thick bevelled glass mirror was hopelessly smashed and the joints in the frame had popped.  He's in the business of restoring furniture and got it with a whole truck load of rather nice things.  He said that fixing it wouldn't pay him for the time and energy involved to redo it.  So he gave it to me.  It is 52 in x 30 in and arched across the top.  The frame itself is 6 inches wide and 3 inches deep with a built in gilded inner frame - solid walnut.  Really beautiful fixed up.  and no, I don't want to go to the struggle of finding another piece of bevelled glass mirror that would cost a fortune.  So of course it has to have a suitable grandiose thing to go in it.  Its another one of those things with Great Potential.  So it has sat in the barn for the last couple of years waiting for it's Great Eureka moment.   

And then there was this tambour embroidery and the need to do something truly splendid with it.  That's when my gaze fell upon the poor abandoned broken frame and I began devising a Plan.  (And I'm using a lot of Capital Letters here because plans of this scope just can't be properly described in lower case. )  And, yes, I have a whole head full of really epic ideas that all include things I really don't know how to do or do well enough.  Then I began on the design. I am still in my Peacock Phase - all those sinuous curves and gorgeous colors.  At Gulf Wars, a friend  showed me a piece of gold couching work she'd done in a class she took.  It was really lovely and I thought to write down exactly the kind of thread she used - Kreinik #7 Japan Gold.  It was such a great addition to the rest of the idea.   It was as though I had too many ideas all wrangling with each other and each of them had something that was good.  It became a struggle, a hassle, a Problem to get this design put together.  And each one demanded to be finished before it would get out of my head and I could start on the next one.  I'm glad I have a big roll of butcher paper and a large design wall.  It was becoming a monster. That was last week.

Friday night I said to myself "Screw all that!".  Forget the Struggle; forget the Agenda.  Just do something that feels good.  I dug out a large-ish hoop (14").  Padded the inner ring with some heavy twill tape and just started sketching on the back of some of the rejected designs.  Doing something small and entertaining to practice those techniques I don't really know how to do, BEFORE I get all tangled up in the big project.   And, once again, it just sort of danced out of my fingers. 

Saturday morning I found a piece of dark blue linen that was just big enough.  I cut a piece of heavy cardboard to fit inside the back of the hoop behind the fabric.  I pricked out the design and pounced it onto the fabric.  Then I connected the dots with a Bohin white pencil.  Seeign it on the frame gave me some better ideas about where to go with the flower  so I adjusted it some .

Then I just started - simple as that.  The lesson here is to discover what my heart wants my fingers to do - to learn to get out of my own way - to stop thinking and efforting and struggling and all those other "ings" To just let it be and do that.  To trust my own inner process and my sense of beauty and joy. 

There will be more to it as I go along.  Designs very often have a way of evolving with the work.  And I will need some more colors and gold thread.  But for now what I see makes my heart happy.

When Things Come Together

Silk damask with embroidered ducks, Central Asia, 7th–8th century Textiles from the regions along the Silk Road play an important role in the newly furnished permanent exhibition. This red silk was woven in China and embroidered in Central Asia with stylised duck motifs that may be traced back to Persian prototypes, thus documenting the exchange of goods and motifs between east and west. ©Abegg-Stiftung, CH-3132 Riggisberg (photo: Christoph von Viràg)

We've just gotten back from our big Spring show.  Every year we merchant at a regional SCA event called Gulf Wars.  For those who don't know, the Society for Creative Anachronism is an international group that fancifully recreates the Middle Ages and Renaissance.  We set up in a big canvas tent and sell our jewelry and Phillip's carvings.  There are two big arts and crafts exhibits too.  One for people who are really serious and have competed all year - very serious with academic documentation and all.  the other is for the general populace and is more on the order of a nice show-and-tell.  Having done a little digging into the history of tambour I thought I'd put my box in and see who liked it. 

I threw together a notebook of really ancient examples  like this one from Central Asia in the 7th century And a few from Egypt in the 9th and 12th centuries - just to show that this sort of thing has been around for ages. 

Add caption

 

By the 9th century CE it can be found in Egypt, in pieces thought to be imported from Persia or made in Egypt for import to the Persian market.

Base fabric:  linen

Embroidery:  wool & cotton

Stitch – chain stitch

Tissus d'Egypte, Temoins du Monde Arabe VIIIe-XVe siecles, Collection Bouvier, Musée d'art et d'histoire Fribourg, Genève and Institut du monde arabe, Paris. 1993.

 Fig. 175-177 pp. 277-280

Egypt - 12^th Century CE

Base fabric:  linen

Embroidery:  wool & cotton

Stitch – chain stitch with woven stitch backgrounding

Tissus d'Egypte, Temoins du Monde Arabe VIIIe-XVe siecles, Collection Bouvier, Musée d'art et d'histoire Fribourg, Genève and Institut du monde arabe, Paris. 1993.

Fig. 178  p. 281

It was fun and satisfied by academic instinct to justify what I was doing.  And people seemed to like it - a lot.  Since Phillip had made those gorgeous ivory hook handles, I thought it would be nice to sit and do a sort of show and tell to demonstrate what they were for.  I was amazed at the number of people who wanted me to teach them.  So, having a spare hook and frame, I did.  It was delightful.  I bought some rather stiff silk gauze from Carolina Calico and set up my own project so I would have something to work along with them.  Failing any serious ideas as to design, I got out a small wooden hoop (4 inches) and drew a curvy line on the fabric.  It looked sort of like a flower stem so I added a flower on the top.  I had some pretty variegated turquoise thread I just liked a lot.  I made a start just casually.

Then, between one breath and the next, for no real reason at all, my brain and my hands decided "We've got this."  Suddenly it was effortless.  All the struggle and tangles and snags of the box lid project were no longer an issue.  Maybe it was because it wasn't a big deal.  I wasn't all that worried about the outcome, just keeping busy, just playing with the thread.  Maybe my brain had figured it out in my sleep when my conscious self wasn't looking.  Whatever the reason, it fairly danced out of my fingers and in about a day, I had the flower done. A nice show-and-tell for Phillip's fancy handles and a new toy for me.  It was so effortless and so gratifying I decided I just wasn't done yet.  So the next day I added the gold border.  Even though it was cheesy fussy gold thread I'd gotten at the craft store and it was a pain to deal with, it was still such fun.  And now there must be more - more designs with curvy lines - more sparkly gold  - more wonderful colors. 

The Lotus Paisley Box is Done

The Lotus Paisley panel seemed like it took forever.  Try as I might I never seemed to get any real traction on it so it was always a struggle and a chore.  Some projects are like that.  I love the idea and the colors and all that, but when it came to the actual doing of it...  well... Phillip even made a lovely screw-tensioned stretcher frame just the right size to hold in my lap.  I worked it all in silk - even the background appliques so the colors would really glow.   The gold highlights are my first foray into working with gold thread. 

But once it was finished I was able to put it away for a while and when I came  back to it I was really pleased with the results. 

 And I'm still working with that box idea from last year.  The Regency box is proving to be so very damaged it may have gone too far to save.  So while I work on with that one miniscule area at a time, I put some energy into the nicer one from the second hand shop.  I even made a tray to set into it to hold all my scattered oddments.  Once the needlework for the top was done I did a woodburned line drawing of lotuses around the sides of the little tray. The Turkish Iznik tile on the lid of the small pocket conceals a really powerful magnet and acts as a working pin cushion.  I love the way it all turned out and I'm thinking that I will get a lot of use from it.

And, hopefully, my next tambour project will be a little easier.

Paisleys, Boxes & The Process

I have always loved paisleys.  Since I was little, something about their exuberant colors and whimsical shape always struck a note with me.   A couple of years ago I started thinking I might do some sort of project with them, so I started collecting images.  I have a huge board of them on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/isiscat/paisleys/).   From that I sorted them out into the ones I liked best and now I have a slightly less huge file of them on my computer.  Yes, I confess - I'm a paisley hoarder.  But I knew that someday I would have the moment when that hoard reached critical mass and became some awesome project.  Well, Monday was that day. 

I have this box - well, I should say I have lots of boxes.  I love little boxes, and besides having them on Pinterest, I have real ones stacked on my dresser - artfully stacked, mind you, but there are more than just a few.  There is one particular one that I got at a second hand shop that has a picture frame lid on it.  Once it held two pictures, but, due to some sad accident, the divider came unstuck, and that's what ended it up in the second hand shop.  I put decorative brass corners on it, because I love the look that has and because they actually do protect the corners.  It is a nice size - about 8" x 10" and divided into two compartments inside, which is a good size and layout for a sewing box.  I even took out its original plain glass and got UV archival glass cut for it to protect whatever is going to go into it.  The problem I have with picture frame boxes is that I never have just one idea for them.  So, in the absence of being able to decide, they just become several things, a sequence of things, but I'm never quite satisfied.  The last incarnation for this one was the sampler I did to go with the research paper I wrote on kasuti.  (http://www.scribd.com/doc/115672807/Kasuti-Indian-Origins-of-Blackwork-Maya-Heath-2012)  Although it did well as a sampler display, I wasn't all that delighted with it in the long term.  And for the past while I've been fiddling with that box and the idea of paisley, but the right AHA! moment hadn't come along - until Monday.  The kicker was wanting a slightly more complex pattern to practice with tambour and work its way into techniques that I want to use to make an embroidered tunic for my siginificant other.   Yes, paisleys and the box lid for a trial piece and then.....

Someone pinned a carved wooden print block, and the image fulfilled all the criteria I had for the paisley idea.  It was a group of them.  It had flowers.  It was a sort of line drawing that I could customize.  It was even a lotus made of paisleys.  I loved the whole idea.  So I have spent a while snatching moments to customize the image to fit on the box lid.  It has come a long way and has yet a way to go before its done, but I am truly pleased with its potential.  It will have a framing Mughal arch.  I have to make up my mind about the major colors.  It will be done in tambour with other stitches added.  So this moment is the celebration of the Great Aha! The light bulb moment when the plan finally came together.  And, yes, the arch is coming together with much greater clarity.

I have some lovely silk thread I've saved for just such an occasion.  And even though all these parts have taken their own sweet time, they have finally arrived at the perfect moment in my stream of artistic consciousness.  I love it when a hoard, a box and a plan finally come together.

Paisley Lotus Box Lid Design (c) 2013 Maya Heath

Tambour Embroidery - Part 2 - Practice, Practice, and Practice Some More

After the first small sample of tambour, and some very kind encouragement from some online friends, I decided to try my hand at tambour embroidery again.  I found a picture that I like.  Yes, its ambitious, but gorgeous trumps ambitious any day in my book.  So using this as a sort of ideal model I looked around to find a project that was a little more of a stretch than my last project, but not so challenging that it would be a failure in the making.  I had found a line pattern of peacocks and flowers that was originally a free online rangoli pattern that I really liked.  One of those things I tucked away thinking that I will use this for something someday - well the something and the someday had arrived.

Peacock Rangoli Pattern

The next challenge was getting the design transferred.  This was not as great a hurdle as it might be as rangoli patterns are very often given with a series of evenly spaced dots so that they can be transferred to a grid of any size.  But an even greater help was some advice I got from the same online friends who recommended Solvy.  Solvy is a lightweight mesh-like fabric that you can draw on.  If you get the "printable" type you can even put it through your printer (not a special, fancy, expensive printer - a plain old regular inexpensive one).  It has a light adhesive so that, when you get your design on it, you can peal off the backing and stick it onto the fabric.  The adhesive is forgiving enough that, if you don't get it on quite right, you can move it gently until it's lined up.  Once you press it down you can put it into the embroidery hoop or frame and it won't shift.  It is a light sort of mesh fabric, very similar to the stabilizer fabric that you see on the back of machine embroideries and, as I worked, I found that it did stabilize the weave of the light cotton muslin I was using.  AND - for its crowning glory - when you are done with your piece, you cut off the big chunks on the edges and rinse it in warm water and it vanishes.  Not just gets soft so you can struggle and fight with it - I mean literally vanishes with barely a trace.  A quick gentle machine wash and it was like it was never there.  Yes, I am definitely in love with this stuff. 

So moving on.  I printed my pattern onto the Solvy, afixed it to the fabric and put it in the lap standing frame as tightly as I could without distorting the image.  That was about a month ago.  I can truly say that this project was a real learning experience.  Doing an image with a repetitive pattern helped me do something not only until I got it right, but until I was reasonably comfortable with doing it.  Doing a larger sized image helped me get comfortable with the tools in general - the feeling of the hook and the thread, the tension of the fabric, what the colors will and will not do.  I even added a few sequins and beads to make the eyes in the tail feathers.  On the down side of this project was that the problem I had finding the right colors of thread.  Thread this gauge doesn't come in all the colors regular thread comes in.  Tatting thread helped, but there is still a limited palette available.  When I do this again I will have to keep that in mind as I plan what I'm going to do.

My final impression is that I am not completely at ease with this technique, yet.  My tension is better but far from ideal.  I still have to focus and concentrate not to split and ravel the thread.  Sometimes I struggle and have to take the stitching out and redo a section.  And, now that I've taken it out of the stretcher and its been washed, I've noticed how bunched and crowded it it - especially the stitching on the birds' bodies and the orange fruit.  This reminds me of a kutch work project I recently did in which the stitching on the interweave looked too sparse and spread out until I took it out of the frame.  Then it drew together and looked perfect.  I think something like that has happened here.  When I stitched the elements, I made sure the rows were very close so that the color would be solid and no background would show through.   It is the nature of tambour work to have the pieces stretched as tight as the drum its named for.  When the piece was in the frame it measured about 5 inches on a side.  Once I got it out and even before I washed it, it measured a solid 4.5 inches - a contraction of almost .5".  I can see now that the natural contracting of the work once its released from the stretcher frame contracted the stitching together, leaving it looking crowded looking.  I will have to take this into account with my next project.

Peacock Rangoli Tambour Embroidery 4.5" x 4.5" cotton on cotton muslin - finished 9 Sept 2013

I may never be as relaxed with this as I am with picking up my needle and floss.  I think that one key element of a finished piece is that it should look effortless.  Your focus should be on the pattern and color and the effect of the workmanship - like the Persian medallion above or wonderful Regency / Empire white work.  My technique is definitely far from effortless.  That will come with "practice, practice, and more practice" just like my friends said.  But all-in-all I'm pleased with how it turned out, and it is definitely a good addition to my skill set that I may need in the future.  Now, I just have to figure out what I will do with it.  A piece doesn't feel finished until it becomes a "something".  Right now its just an exercise.  But I know that idea will come in its own time.

 

Side Trips - Tambour Embroidery

Larger concerns in my life have forced me to put aside work on the box for a while.  So I naturally turn back to embroidery.  In my life, I've probably done yards and yards of  blackwork / counted work / petit point / cross stitch by now.  You could even say I'm something of an expert of OCD coloring inside the lines and thinking inside any number of historically acurate boxes.  So this year I decided it was high time to try some very new things and revisit things I've tinkered with ages ago.  I need something new and interesting to occupy my imagination and expand my horizons.  I need to get outside my comfort zone and cultivate some new skills.  For a while I've been looking at tambour embroidery.  Its done in various forms in many parts of the world - from vibrant colors on felt in Persia (resht / rashti) to wall hangings in Uzbekistan (suzani) to white thread on shear white cotton gauze in 19th century Europe.  It is used in haute coutour to put glorious beads on transparent georgette and lay goldwork and jewels on fabulous gowns (zardosi).  It is done on leather (mochi barat).  It can go from miraculously delicate to incredibly sturdy.  It has about a dozen names.  In India it is sort of generally known as aari.  So I really need to try this.

Tambour Hook - closeup

As usual new crafts need different tools, and isn't part of the fun getting all these new tools to play with. It requires a different kind of frame - one that holds tension on the fabric very very tightly (it is called tambour after all, like the drum) and does not slip, and one that supports itself so you can hold the hook in one had and the thread in the other without bearing the weight on your hand.  I could have gotten a slate frame, but I've never used one of those either and I figure I just need one mountain at a time to climb.  Besides, I bought a frame like that at the quilt show a couple of years ago because I had an inking this was coming.  It needs a special hook.  Tambour hooks look like tiny crochet hooks except they are sharpened to a wicked point.  So I ordered one of those too.  It requires special thread - tightly wound, polished, mercerized thread such as sewing thread works well.  So does tatting thread and button hole twist.  It doesn't come in as many shades and colors as I'd like but I will make do.

Having my frame and tools firmly in hand I read the instructions.  There are several good tutorials online and even a few video ones on YouTube.   It's a deceptively simple process in which you stick the hook through the fabric, twist it around to grab the thread (making sure you get the whole thread not just part of it).  Then you draw it up back through the fabric pulling a loop of the thread up.  Then you do this again.  A few more times and you can see it makes a chain stitch.  Sounds simple right?  Well - not so much really.  The real trick is to hook the whole thread, not snag just part of it, and to draw it cleanly up without snagging the fabric weave.  This is not as easy as the tutorials and videos make it appear.  The other thing that some friends told me is "practice, practice, and then practice some more" - better advice was never given.

I tightened the fabric onto the frame, sketched a curvy line and bravely dug in.  What you see here is the result of several hours work - snagging the thread, taking it out, starting over, snagging it again, starting over again, and again and again.  The wonderful feeling of triumph when a few stitches in a row went in right - then the aggravation of snagging it again.  Using a hook like this is like learning how to hand sew for the first time.  It is a completely unfamiliar tool that is attached to completely strange tactile sensations.  I felt like a 5-year-old with my first ball of yard.  Awkward, unsure, frustrated.  But I finally managed a whole thing.  Round 1 - It did not defeat me.  My personal critique tells me that my tension leaves a great deal to be desired.  Mainly it is too tight - certainly it is not consistent.  The lines filling the flower are too far apart or far too close together depending on where you look, and they don't lay cleanly side by side.  But this is not a failed attempt.  In fact, that outside border was rather a nice touch.  I put in a row of dark blue and then zig-zagged over it with light blue.  So life could be worse, right? And with that in mind I will try this again (when I've caught my breath).  Maybe something a little more complex.  After all "practice, practice, and then practice some more".