Right – here is a collection of herring, done in different fabrics and with different patterns and detailing. I particularly like the effect of the silver lame, although it’s not an easy fabric to work with. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these – they’ll probably be popular at out next exhibition so I may do some more to sell
A school of herring
Recently I’ve been working on ideas that combine machine embroidery with other crafts to make different kinds of decorative objects, and here’s one that's based on the unlikely idea of a string of herrings. The coast of the north-east of Scotland (where I live) has a strong tradition of herring fishing, and around here if you refer to the “silver darlings”, everyone will know that you’re talking about the herrings. So here is the first stage of a tribute to the little silvery fish
I sketched several different versions of herring and digitised one to use in trying out various ways of making the fish. The fish itself was easy enough – I just stitched out the right and left halves and then stitched the two together, leaving a gap with which to turn the fish and stuff it with a little batting. The fins and tail were a trickier proposition, but eventually I worked out a way to add embroidered fins that were translucent and rigid (this technique is too long and complicated to describe here but if anyone’s interested, just drop me a line)
The result is, I think, a modest success, and I will now go on to make more herrings from different fabrics with different embroidered details
The first of several herrings
As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, one of the things I find most frustrating about computerised machine embroidery is the fact that you’re limited to quite a small area for your work. My largest hoop will only give me a maximum size of 8 x 12 inches (20 x 30 cm) and that’s just not large enough for some ideas. Of course you can piece things together (that is, stitch small pieces and sew them together) which is OK for some things, but not everything
But it was only after I’d had my new Innovis-i for some time that I realised its potential for making really big embroideries. It’s all because of the video facility on the machine. This is a small video camera built into the machine that gives you a clear, detailed view of the stitching field, and lets you adjust the position of the design to within a single stitch. At first I’m embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t see the point of this, but eventually I began to realise what a fantastic tool the little camera could be
To test the facility, I drew a really big design of a leaping goat. I divided the figure into ten sections and digitised each one separately. I also digitised a grid over the design to make it easier to adjust the position of the design on the machine. Then I prepared a single piece of backing fabric, and basted the grid markings onto the fabric
Now I just hooped the fabric as usual, moving the hoop around the fabric as necessary to stitch all the different parts, and used the video camera to adjust the placement of the design so that the sections lined up with the grid and with parts that had been digitised earlier. I think the result was a real success and did exactly what I was hoping it would. There were one or two minor glitches, but nothing serious, and considering that this was the first time I’d tried the technique I’m surprised that there weren’t more
The goat just off the machine, with the basted grid still in place, and a foot rule and a bottle of wine to show how big it is
The final embroidery measures about 20 x 14 inches, (51 x 35 cm) stitched on to a single piece of fabric, something which would normally be impossible to do on my machine.
The Leaping Goat finished
As far as the design is concerned, I’m not sure if it’s a zentangle animal or a tapa animal, but it works pretty well (apart from the head, which I will change next time I try this). This design incorporates a lot of applique. I think doing the design all in embroidery might be a problem, because the pull problems would be considerable. It would also use a LOT of thread!
But I am very pleased with this approach, and now I don’t feel limited to work in any particular size. Of course this method imposes some technical constraints on designs, but that’s true of any craft
After stitching out what seemed like hundreds of goldfish
and really liking the effect that several layers of overstitching gave to the
designs, I’ve been trying to find other ways of using the overstitching technique.
At the moment we have flocks of little birds at our bird feeders so I thought I’d
try some detailed bird designs in a semi-realistic style. So I’m working on a
four-part design with a wren, a goldcrest, a coal tit and a (British) robin.
Here are the wren and the goldcrest
Wren
Goldcrest
They’re sort of OK but for some reason they haven’t turned
out quite as nicely as the goldfish, and I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it has to
do with the fact that goldfish are smooth and shiny, so the overstitching gives
them a clear definition and dimension. The birds, on the other hand, are fluffy
and feathery, with less defined shapes, so the effect of the overstitching
tends to get lost in the depth of all those feathers.They're also a lot more complicated than the fish, so there's more that can go wrong with them. Never mind – they’re
still appealing and I’ll continue with the series
For some reason – don’t ask me why – I’ve recently developed
a mad urge to design masks, especially extreme types like fantasy animals and
extravagant Venetian Carnival masks. But there isn’t a lot of point in
designing something if you can’t make it, so I’ve been looking into various
ways of making embroidered masks. First, I sketched a quick and simple design, digitised it and stitched it out
A simple mask design stitched on felt
Felt seemed a good material to
use, as it’s thick and robust, and should be a little bit stretchable.
However it’s too floppy to use as it comes, so I needed some way of hardening
it. I had intended to use a dilute solution of PVA glue, but I came across a
bottle of fabric stiffener in my stores so used that instead
I also bought a cheap polystyrene head from e-bay for a
couple of pounds. I think it‘s supposed to be used as a hat or wig stand, but
it was just what I needed to mould the mask on. After soaking the cut-out
embroidered felt mask in fabric stiffener and protecting the polystyrene face
with plastic film, I placed the mask on the head and moulded it to shape. The
felt stretched and compressed very well, and I held it in place with pins while
the fabric dried
The fabric mask, soaked in fabric stiffener and pinned in place on the polystyrene head
And here’s the finished mask, dried and ready to be further decorated
with paint, feathers, sequins or whatever you like
Isobel tried it on even before it was decorated and it fitted perfectly
I am very pleased with the
method and will start extending the technique a bit. I want to try painting the
fabric before it’s embroidered, and also use some applique in the design. To my
surprise the raw edges of the felt looked pretty good just as they were, but
I’d also like to try stitching masks on a soluble stabiliser so I can define
the edges with a finishing stitch
Finally I need to solve the problem of noses. The felt is
very flexible and easy to shape, especially when it’s wet, but I don’t think I
could stretch it far enough to make into a long nose. I’ll have to stitch or
glue in a separate piece, and will need to work out how to disguise the join
After the woolly sheep, I’ve been experimenting with using embellished (felted) wool in more embroideries. This one is based on a cat design I did a long time ago. I just stitched an outline of the shape, embroidered the ears, and then removed the fabric from the hoop and spent an hour or so felting in scraps of grey and brown wool (=American yarn) to make the coat, and added cream-coloured wool for the paws and tail tip. Here’s the design after embellishing.
Wool felted on to the embroidered outline
The black spots were put in to help to align the design with the camera after embellishing, as usually it’s difficult to see the outline of the original embroidery through the woolly coat. The spots are done in low density stitching so they’ll be easy to remove after the final stitching is complete.
Like many embellishers, I’ve noticed that the back of the embellished fabric is just as interesting as the front. It’s very different: a lot more blended and subtle, and I might just repeat this design some time and try embellishing from the back of the fabric.
Embellished cat seen from the back
But this time I kept to the usual method of using the front as the “right side”. I re-hooped the embellished fabric, scanned it with the camera attachment and adjusted the position on the machine with the help of the black dots. Then, with a layer of soluble stabiliser placed over the design, I stitched the final stages, which consisted mostly of adding texture to the coat. I also overstitched the paws and tail tip, and added an overstitched “mask” over the face area so that the details of eyes and mouth would stand out more clearly
The cat after the final stitching
This was a very interesting and instructive experiment. Perhaps the most important thing that I learned was that embellishing invariably stretches, compresses and generally distorts the fabric, so that with the best will in the world it is impossible to align the embellished fabric exactly with the original outline. That doesn’t matter with this design, because it’s pretty unstructured, and it doesn’t matter much if the final stitching is a little bit off. But I can imagine designs where it would be essential to align the embellished fabric exactly with the embroidered details, and that might be a problem.
Another thing I’ve learned is that it’s difficult to work with a design with fiddly details: felting scraps of wool into small, complicated areas can be a problem. The head of the embellisher isn’t all that small and if you aren’t careful you’ll find yourself felting the background fabric, which results in areas of torn and lacerated fabric all around your design.
So, the best kind of designs for this technique are those that are free and loose, and with the felting confined to large, simple shapes. It sounds like animal designs would be the right way to go. I have a drawing of a hare that I think would work well with this technique, so I’ll see what I can do
I’m still trudging on with the commissions. I have two or three more goldfish designs on the go at the moment and here’s one I’ve just finished. Apparently the image of a goldfish means Good Luck in Chinese tradition, and I believe that this embroidery was intended as a gift for an elderly Chinese lady. It’s just a simple combination of three of the fish and a design of waterweed. Unfortunately the scan misses a lot of the subtlety and shading of the original embroidery but it’s a pleasant enough composition
Three goldfish for good luck
I know it’s ungrateful of me but I’m getting a bit bored with doing all these commissions. The problem is that either they’re not very ambitious ideas, or they’re based on old designs of mine that I’ve stitched hundreds of times. So I’m taking a break and trying out some new ideas.
Ever since I tried the photo facility on the Innovis-i I’ve wanted to play around with it some more, and I’ve also wanted for some time to find a way of combining embellishing (needle-felting with a machine) with digitised embroidery. So here’s an idea that uses both these techniques.
I did a rough drawing of a sheep and digitised it quickly. It is intended to be made in three stages: the first embroidery stage, the embellishing, and the final embroidery stage. Here’s the first embroidery stage
The first stage of the sheep
The head and legs are stitched first, and then a guide line is stitched, which will help with the placement of the felted wool at the next stage.
The sheep after the wool is felted on
Then for the second stage the embroidery is removed from the hoop and strands of wool are felted on with the embellishing machine. Then the wool is trimmed and the embroidery is re-hooped. At this stage you need the camera facility on the machine to be sure that the embroidery pattern is aligned with the embroidery in the hoop. Finally the last steps of the embroidery are finished – the ear and the details of the woolly coat. It is VERY important to stitch these final details over a piece of water-soluble stabiliser to prevent any of the loops of wool from becoming caught up in the machine’s foot
The sheep after the final embroidered details are added
It's just a simple design but I'm pleased with the way it turned out. The techniques worked pretty well and should be applicable to other ideas besides sheep
This is just a small embroidery that I did as a commission
for someone who wanted a little seahorse as a present for a friend. The brief
was to design a small, subtle seahorse in blues and greens, with just a little highlighting
in metallic threads. Left to my own devices I would have used silver leaf for
the body, overstitched with blue metallic thread, but in this case I tried to
restrain myself and just used pasinted fabric for the appliqueed body. The only metallics are the subtle gold swirl in the background
and the blue surround to the eye. To my eye these are perhaps a bit too subtle,
but of course the customer is always right!
A little seahorse as a present for a friend
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been spending all my time stitching commissions that I took at the show. However most of the designs were things that I’ve posted here in the past so I didn’t feel justified in putting them up again. But here’s something I think is new, based on some goldfish designs that I did when I was selling designs on the internet. At the show I had some goldfish stitched out roughly in a “bellpull” arrangement and these were so popular I had to promise several people to do some more for them. Here’s the first one I’ve finished.
Twelve goldfish in a bellpull arrangement
There were a few practical problems with it, but in the end it didn’t turn out too badly
As I was stitching them, I realised that recently I’ve become so preoccupied with applique that I’ve tended to forget what subtle effects you can get when you overlay several thin layers of embroidery. The body of these fish consist of four or five separate layers, each contributing to the contouring of the body, and the effect can be really interesting. Of course there are times when applique is the only way to do something, but on the same principle there are times when embroidery on its own is the way to go. Maybe I’ll have to get back to thinking about what layers of embroidery can do