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I wish the resolution of this photograph was better. I depend on sunshine to take my photographs since I am not equipped with very sophisticated cameras and it has been raining torrents for the last two days. But I am really happy with the result. The flowers jump off the linen and the luminosity rendered by the silk is wonderful.
The remaining pleasure is preparing my message which will include why the choice of subject and a little of my experience while I worked. I anticipate two lovely days with this dear friend punctuated by visiting with her daughter who has returned from 3 months of travelling through Europe. I have known this young daughter since she was 6 years old and have watched her grow into a young adult who has a dream to be a deep, unjudgmental, reflective adult. And my own daughter will arrive from Los Angeles. Two devoted mothers with two loving daughters will spend an hour over lunch on Friday. It will be rich and full of laughter as we share.
And I know that my friend will appreciate my gesture of this gift and will also understand that:
'The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him (her) - it cannot fail....' (Walt Whitman)
It's not that I want to rush through Spring and then Summer, but I have just mounted this small piece on acrylique ready for a frame. I had hesitated in doing anything with this embroidery because the red dyes ran slightly during the cleaning process and I felt it was not worthy of any further investment of time and money. But as is often the case, when I leave a piece on my work table, it takes on another significance. I see it more objectively.
I remember when I finished it, a client had just arrived in the studio. She reacted spontaneously to the piece. When I pointed out the bleeding, she was adamant that if at any time I decided to not do anything with the work, she would like it. She is the daughter of a renowned Quebec artist and I trust her eye.
Maybe my objectivity and resulting pleasure today in looking at this piece is similar to that which C. exhibited that day so long ago. Somehow the very slight mark of bleeding around one or two of the leaves seemed less important. Time has worked its magic if only in my head.
Here is the colour palette for the silk piece I am working on. I spent the morning on the patio, despite the wind, working. It is a welcome overcast day today, so it was easier to work without my hands becoming a little hot.
As you can see I made progress and finished the blue flower. Some of the petals are so small, it was hard to give a sense to each of the shapes. But I am happy with the overall effect. I had wanted to use a little more of the pale blue, and had tried a few petals using two or even three hues of the blues shown here. In the end, after several attempts, I simplified and used only two hues in the larger petals and one hue in the smaller ones.
I was reminded as I worked how surgical I have to be when placing each stitch. There is no room for error with the Pipers and I have to be very precise in the way I analyse both the start and finish of each stitch as well as the movement inside the form. A close up will show that each petal has a central vein and hopefully a slightly rounded movement upwards, downwards or sideways. I plan to use one thread of the darker brown thread to interpret the stems which will give a very delicate illusion to the whole. Once this corner motif is complete, I plan to work the central flower which will introduce the glorious pinks into the project as well as an increased degree of difficulty.
Wish me luck.
To carry on with my post earlier today, given that I have lots of time to enjoy my embroidery without the usual constraints of the usual rhythm of a day at home, I have also started a more difficult silk piece. The design is inspired by an early 18th watercolour sample by Anna Maria Garthwaite as a suggestion for a custom order at the silk weaving mills of the Soieries de Lyon. The flower forms of the original painting are exquisite and a great challenge to try to transform the painted stylized forms into surface embroidery on fine linen.
I am working on optic white Belgian linen with Piper's 90 denier silk floss. As you can see from the second photo, the thread is not much thicker than a hair and I like to work with just one thread.
I have chosen a palette of vegetable dye colours, ambers, moss greens, and some indigo blues. I'll add a photo of the colour selection tomorrow.
This project is a pleasing change from the cross stitch I am doing simultaneously. One gives respite from the other.
And I even have a third project underway which I keep in my travel bag which comes on the plane with me.. maybe tomorrow I'll post that project and why I have no excuse to keep my fingers busy wherever I happen to be.
I love to keep busy and particular like to have a way to measure the passage of time. Embroidery provides this measure in a very tangible way and this blog helps also. Thanks for reading, loyal followers.
