Monday 21 September 2009

A Needle in a Haystack

Over the weekend I did the finishing on Calm Flow as described before.

I don’t know if is was because of the different stitching techniques employed, or because I was more aware of the thread twisting but I had far fewer loops to secure than on Phase I. Clam Flow has been the most enjoyable project. I really like couching techniques and found couching the rows of beads very relaxing. Overcrowding my stitches, or in this case beads, remains a fault in my technique. I still try to squeeze in as many as will fit, rather than giving them space to breath. This applies equally to the couched lines and the random stitched beads.


Another 'difficulty' I had with this project was working with black beads on black back ground. It doesn’t seem to matter what medium you are working with, black on black is very difficult to see. In poor light you can’t see what you are doing but bright light just bounces off the beads creating glare.

In this picture I have pushed a pin through from the underside to mark the position of a thread loop. I have also pushed the needle up from the underside. They are near impossible to see against the black beads. Most of the time I know where I am expecting the needle to emerge but sometimes my spatial awareness is rather off and I had to locate the needle by carefully running my hand over the surface.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I will make this up into a folio but I want to show it to my tutor before I do the finishing.

Happy Stitching

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