slow progress

I have been working on my reverse applique project, and although it seems to be going very slowly, I am learning a lot along the way. I began by working in the way I've read the Cuna Indians execute the technique using woven cotton, but then had to adapt it to make it more suitable to the knit materials I'm using. I've also decided that it's much easier to sew up a jacket from scratch using fresh material and a pattern than it is to recycle and refashion existing garments...but I'm not after "easier". :-) Working on ways to solve the challenges of this project is teaching me so much, sparking so many ideas for future projects, and is so energizing, I'm having trouble sleeping at night!

Beading

Some bracelets I made last month, playing around with peyote stitch. The first, on the far left in the photo, was stitched in what was basically a tubular odd-count peyote. It was done in orange and violet beads, around one of those colored elastic wristbands all the kids are wearing these days. I came up with the idea after seeing some beaded beads done in peyote that were strung on a cord, and thought that if I worked them directly around the elastic wristband, I would avoid having to use a clasp. Peyote stitch is very stiff, and makes nice stiff beads, but I found that by weaving it "three-drop", with nylon thread, I could extend the length of the bead as long as I wanted, into a tube long enough to circle my wrist, and it would be pliant enough to curve around the wrist.

I wasn't quite happy with the way the nylon thread was visible, and so next, I tried playing around with peyote and a clear, monofilament line. I found that by adding a "floating" bead, the peyote stitch became quite elastic, which was a big surprise. The two middle bracelets in the photo were made that way. In both, I alternated bugle and seed beads, resulting in a triangular-shaped tube. It's elastic enough that the wristband I used in the center of the tube for the first bracelet was totally unnecessary. I made the blue and silver bead bracelet first, before Christmas, and then another one in red and gold beads on Christmas Eve. I wore it to a party that evening, and when a niece admired it, I gave it to her. On Christmas morning, I made one in green and silver, and again gave it away that day when someone noticed and admired it. In both those bracelets, I put a slight twist in the triangular tube before connecting the ends to form a circle, which made them look similar to the double-helix structure of a DNA molecule. I don't have pictures of either of those bracelets, and then the fourth and final bracelet I made using this technique (the gold and violet one in this photo), I connected "flat" as I did with the first one, so you'll have to take my word on the DNA-looking thing.

The bracelet on the far right in the photo is the same stitch, but done in the opposite direction, with the bead sequence of short-and-long beads inverted! It has no elasticity at all in the opposite direction, so I made it with a little larger circumference, as a bangle bracelet.

The molas of the San Blas Cuna Indians of Panama are inspiring me to try some reverse applique.

My thought is to turn an old sweatshirt into a jacket. I love the complimentary combination of orange and blue, and have chosen an old orange turtleneck to line the blue sweatshirt.


This is a sample I did to try out the technique, and my choice of motif...not a traditional Mola pattern, but an image of a bird borrowed from a work by Escher. I thought Escher's work would be awesome rendered in reverse applique.




Beginning...

A beaded trophy

In my family, we're serious about our cards! As far back as I can remember, playing cards was a part of family gatherings on both my mother's and father's side. The games were never for money, but were still quite competitive. A year or so ago, my father, aunt, brother and I formed a sort of card club, in which we get together on a regular basis to play 500. My brother Rick is our official score keeper, and he has kept a running record of all the scores from every game we've played.

So a few months back, when I was thinking what I could make as a sample project in which to learn bead embroidery stitches, I decided the perfect project would be a first-place trophy for our 500 card club. It would be something we could award to the winner each time we played, and transferred like the pro wrestling championship "big gold belt" each time we met to compete. Since the Joker is so important in the game of 500, I came up with this:


It was officially awarded the first time to Dad, when he won our November 10, 2009 game. And although everyone loved the trophy, simply winning it wasn't enough for Dad, he wanted his name, score and the date engraved on it, too! So, I had to come up with something for that...

Rick helped me out, by printing up two cards to go along with the trophy: the first is a list of the top 10 scores ever, of all our games, and the second card is a running list of the winner, date and score for all the games we've played since we've had the trophy. Luckily, I won the next time we got together, and so had the chance to make a beaded frame for the "Top 10 scores" card and to permanently attach it to the Joker trophy. It hangs from a beaded strap, and can be flipped to the front of the trophy when one wants to display the scores, or flipped to the back of the trophy to display the Joker.

A beaded cuff

I'm playing around with different bead embroidery and bead weaving techniques, and this beaded cuff is the result. It appeals to me on several levels, the foremost being that I made it using only found or recycled items (with the exception of the beading thread). I have a prejudice in my respect of art that has been made using materials the artist has at hand...it seems more honest and real to me, somehow. I'm simply more impressed by art from common materials, like a basket woven out of native grasses or an image painted inside a cave somewhere in France...I may be wrong, but I think it's a lot easier to make something beautiful when one goes out and purchases the best materials to work with, and I feel that such art is done less for art's sake and more for mercenary reasons...not that that's a "bad" thing. I just see it as somehow less spontaneous and pure...

Not that I feel there is any inherent purity in the beer bottle caps I used in this piece, however! I used them because I wanted to learn how to attach cabochons with beaded bezels, but was lacking in cabochons and so substituted the caps. I did end up having to devise my own method of attachment, as the usual beaded bezel method did not work well with the caps. Overall, I'm pleased with the final result...visually, I think the beading pattern is reminiscent of shock waves and so compliments the "shock top" of the caps, and developmentally, I learned much in the process.

Some beading projects

My Ode to O'Keefe

This project has had me at odds with myself, it feels like yin and yang the way it's been pulling me in opposite directions. I felt as if I had managed to sabotage my original concept the moment I began working on it, but now I wonder if I accomplished my intent supremely in the beginning, and am now only working my way away from it...

The idea was to re-create the image in pieces, of impressions of color, shape, light and shadow and not in defined parts of leaf and petal. I had wanted to do it in stitchery with perhaps some beading, but couldn't surrender myself to trust in stitchery alone and so began by painting the panels to help my stitchery along. I used only two colors, red and green, along with white for highlighting, and worked section by section, not the image as a whole. It was at this point that I felt that I had sabotaged my intent, because I had painted a picture of a poppy, when I had only meant to provide some background for my stitches. So, at first I was dismayed, until it occurred to me that I accomplished with the painting what I had intended to accomplish with the stitching. Written out like this it seems absurd, but I really did surprise myself!

I have to declare this project a success, if only for all the thoughts and ideas it's provoked in me about how I wish I would have done it! If I had world enough and time, I would tackle this idea in several different ways...as it is, I am giving myself permission to deviate from my original intent with this project, and see where it leads me. I can feel that disciplining myself to keep to my original idea at this point is only paralyzing me, and will end up forcing me to abandon it altogether. And as far as the original concept goes, it has already demonstrated the foregone conclusion...that the pieces of life our brains assemble, an incomplete knowledge of people, places and things, enriched with bits supplied by imagination, although in truth is an imperfect assemblage, for all practical purposes it can still be a close enough approximation to what is "real"... I amuse myself to recognize that a truth so fundamental to living a human existence (because as humans, possessing a perfect and complete knowledge of anything, even ourselves, is impossible) should be so surprising to me when applied to art...