Flame Fan; Earth, Fire & Water

Flame Fan began as a rough doodle shortly after we visited an exhibition of Royal fans at The Queens Gallery, Edinburgh, in March 2006. The original sketch was of a single fan, with curving flames. I liked it, but knew it needed more thought.

Thought does not always go in the direction we expect. What I thought I was thinking about were the elements of the design, shape, colour, texture, size and so on. What I actually found myself thinking about were the basic elements of fire, water and earth.

I don't recall why, but something I had seen or read made a connection in my memory and  I found myself thinking that 'out of the darkness came chaos, out of chaos came order'. I don't know if that's a quote or if I made it up, but that got the design moving.

The centre of the design is a triangle of black felt (darkness). The threads that cross the felt disappear into the three triangles where they become random (chaotic). The random nature fades towards the colours chosen for the 'flames' and the flames appear in an ordered manner out of the chaos as Earth, Fire and Water, the three ancient 'elements'. All three fans follow the same design apart from the colours.

I used Needle Necessities Floss Overdyed in six different shades for the flames and the triangles, and couched the outline of the fans in metallic threads from the family stash. The flames within the fans are stitched in a bargello pattern. The insides of the fans are filled with a running stitch using a fine machine embroidery gold metallic, but the rest of the canvas has been left unstitched.

Flame Fan is stitched on 18 count canvas and the framed piece is 20" square. It took me 102 hours to design and stitch. I exhibited this piece at the American Needlepoint Guild Seminar, 2007 in Baltimore. No prizes, but a positive and helpful critique from the judges.

Venerable Friends

In this blog I have been writing (mostly) about my work in order of completion. Some pieces take longer than others. I started Venerable Friends in January 2005, but it doesn't appear here until September 2006.
Why did it take so long? It just does sometimes.

Copyright Japanese Embroidery Center, Atlanta

Venerable Friends was my Phase III in Traditional Japanese Embroidery. It took time, discipline, sweat and tears, but thankfully no blood was spilt. By the time I was finished it had been re-titled Venomous Friends.
As with each Phase Piece, there are new techniques. In Venerable Friends I learned how to stitch Shippo, and equally important, how to make them all exactly the same size. If they're not, it doesn't look right. Shippo are the circles and ellipses at the top centre.
The purpose of Phase III is to teach the student about 'superimposed work', so it also includes 'Woven Stitch', on the scroll, padding under the cherry blossoms and some of the chrysanthemum petals, and a Higaki pattern in gold over brown at the bottom of the open book.

Why Venerable Friends?
The design consists of four books and a scroll. Books and scrolls contain knowledge, knowledge should be respected. It is your friend and will stay with you all your life. Respect for age and knowledge (wisdom) is embedded in Japanese culture. Thus, books and scrolls containing knowledge should be treated with respect (veneration).

Venerable Friends measures 12" by 10" not including the mount and frame. Although it took me over a year and a half to complete, it actually took 100 hours of stitching.

Petite Nosegay

Drawing back from my recent adventures, we rush back in time to 2006.

At the Nashville Seminar of ANG in 2005 I took a class with the late Sandy Rogers. The class was interesting, educational and informative but I had a definite love-hate relationship with the embroidery.

The design was pretty and I particularly wanted to learn more about silk shading, and I wanted to take a class with Sandy. So what was the problem?
Mental Block!
I 'm stuck with this idea that Needlepoint goes through the holes in the canvas, linen or whatever, and that you don't pierce the canvas unless it's to secure your thread. In this class we used chenille needles and seemed to be piercing the canvas with almost every stitch. I just couldn't get my head round it!

As you can see in the large flower, I really didn't get the hang of silk shading on canvas. Silk or heavy linen yes, but not canvas. I blame me, not the teacher or the design.
I soldiered on and finished it even though it took well into 2006, but it has never reached the stage of being framed. Perhaps one day I'll revisit it, until then it can stay in the drawer, flat, and wrapped in acid-free tissue paper.

Pineapple Welcome

So why is a pineapple welcome?
As I wrote in my Artist's Statement for the 2019 Seminar Exhibit;

In 2018 I took Sandi Cormaci-Boles "Passionate Pineapple" class at Seminar. I enjoyed the class immensely and by the time I had finished the "Petite Pineapple" practice piece and the "Passionate Pineapple" I was so enthused by eyelets that I wanted to design my own version.

Pineapples are a traditional sign of welcome dating back to time immemorial (or at least the 17th Century). I wanted to do something with Sandi's Petite Pineapple and it was only a short step to the idea of WELCOME, but replacing the O with a pineapple. I also wanted to use colour. By lucky chance, Welcome has the same number of letters as the rainbow has colours; Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow and Red. Initially I considered working the letters in eyelets, but while working on the designs it struck me that creating a block of eyelets with the letters unstitched in the centre of each block would give a much more interesting effect and a more striking finish.
I liked that, but decided that the single word lacked visual balance and needed something at the ends, so I added two more pineapples and border.

The ground is 28 count linen. The letters are all worked in eyelets over 4 threads using DMC #8 Perle. The pineapples at either end were worked with a variegated Anchor #8 Perle which reminded me of the piles of well ripened pineapples I occasionally saw at the side of the road in my childhood. The border is a variation on Smyrna Cross, with the X worked over 4 threads and the + over 2 threads. AND all the materials used in this piece came from my Stash!
I am indebted to Sandi for allowing me to incorporate her "Petite Pineapple" into my design and encouraging me to create "Pineapple Welcome".

Framed, Pineapple Welcome is 24" x 14" and took 85 hours to complete. I laced it onto the back-board and it was mounted and framed by Renaissance Framing of Edinburgh.

And a ribbon! Second place. I was surprised and immensely pleased. As one lady said of it, "It deserves a prize for bravery if nothing else! A whole piece in eyelets!" Then she looked at me as though she considered that I might be slightly nuts.
I was asked why pineapples were a sign of hospitality. I have to admit that I have no idea, I think it was the exotic nature of the plant, suggesting wealth and comfort; and the earliest I have heard of it being used as a sign of welcome and hospitality is in the UK and the American Colonies in the mid 17th Century.