I have been sooo inspired by the books I purchased on the work of Alice Kettle- her stitching is phenomenal and the way she uses it to create an image is very inspirational. She does use an industrial machine but just looking at her work inspired me to try stitching really heavily. It has thrown the timing out on my machine which has always been dodgy ( backs of my work are rather imperfect) and is giving me reason to think I might just go and trade my machine in, because every time I set it to a heavy workload the timing flips out and it's not as if the provider of a service is close by. nor are they cheap.
Anyway this little piece measures about 5 inches by 7 and is entitled grief- I know black is usually assocated with grief but since I dreamt that a big black rock lifted out of my life earlier this year it doesn't have that colour any more- and I actually find I can express it perhaps visually- it's insiduous and creeps into all corners of your life and arrives as suddenly as it leaves at all kinds of time- but it has become a part of the fabric of who I am and in the spirit of that I tried to think of it as something lighter because it is part of my journey, and the big black rock lifting said to me don't get crushed. ( I also only had the cream colour thread- which is Aurifil and which again stood up to the challenge beautifully- you can't see the texture) . The orangey colour represents me- I have always thought of myself as earth kind of colours and I used Valdani variegated thread which added an interesting challenge in how to use it without losing the colours of the variegation- anyway I now have to entirely hand stitch my climate change quilt because my machine refuses to co-operate- bleghh
6 comments:
I'm glad you had more success after seeing Alice Kettle than I did with my attempts which resulted in a hairy monster of a piece.
I am taking a class from Alice next week at SDA conference in Kansas City. I think this piece of thread work is wonderful and very expressive.
Hi! Dijanne,
I do so love this piece, and grief does not have to be black it can be any colour we see it as, you have intriqued me with Alice kettle so i am going to look out for her books,
Thanks for sharing how you felt making this piece I feel it is a privilige that you shre your thoughts.
Sorry to hear about your machine, I don't know what brand you have, but I bought a new one last year and so badly wanted Bernina but had to decide against one as the nearest dealer and mechanic was two hours drive away. I settled for a Janome 6600P and I have been very happy with it.
Good luck with all that hand sewing!
What industrial machine does she use, do you know? What machine are you eyeing? I am still using an old dsm, a Janome.
A wonderful piece of work.
It cannot succeed as a matter of fact, that's what I suppose.
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