I was saving this for halloween, but I just posted it to Illustration Friday - Ageing. This was part of the design work building up to Doris. (If you haven't met Doris, you can find her in the archives for 2005-05-08). The other thing about it is I did it after I made the Opus Anglicanum sample, because I wanted to extend the technique of split stitching faces.
It is a 3D plaque. It hangs on the back of the door in my sewing room.
Here it is in closeup.
Ageing. Click on photo for bigger image.
I used a piece of very pale coloured linen as the background. I transferred the design by tracing it through a piece of crystal organza and attaching that to the linen. All the embroidery is in knitting yarns using split stitch or satin stitch except for the eyebrows. The loose wisps of hair are threads withdrawn from the background fabric. The hat is cut from a felted wool scarf and is made in two pieces, crown and brim, joined together. The hat band is a kumihomo braid. I cut a piece of grey picture framers board to the outline shape and laced the embroidery on to it.
Not quite as beautiful as the work of the 13th Century ecclesiastical embroiderers!
7 comments:
This is fantastic! In the complete picture I thought it was a carved block of wood. The whole thing is wonderful and scary!
your work is amazing! and i love the eyebrows!
She is just wonderful - I love her!
Wow. I've never seen embroidery like this before. Very cool!
This reminds me of a re-run of "Bewitched" I saw last week. Samantha's husband Darren drew an ugly witch for Halloween and Sam was extremely upset! Being a witch herself, she did not like being depicted as an ugly old crone!!
Absolutely amazing. She is a treasure! I love embroidery, both the process and the product.
OH my Goodness, it's soooo cool. Embroidery!!! THis is very cool. What a wonderful job and terrific texture! I'm so glad you posted all the pictures! I read you did it with "split stitches" is that the same as chain stitch?? It sure looks good. Very Best Regards, Jacque
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