White Threads

slow creativity

This morning I was listening to ABC 702 radio here in Sydney. One of my favourite segments is Richard Fydler’s Conversations. Most of Richard’s guests are extremely interesting – or maybe I just find people in general interesting!

This morning he was talking to an artist named Cressida Campbell. Cressida creates very laborious and painstaking artworks using watercolours and woodblocks.

Image from www.cressidacampbell.com

Richard posed the theory that artists such as Jackson Pollock who create abstract art don’t seem to be very happy, perhaps because they create their artworks so quickly. He wondered whether there is something about works that are painstaking and laborious to make that means that their creators are more happy.

For me, the slowness of embroidery is part of the attraction to doing it. It requires time and thought. It requires me to slow down. It allows me to think things through, and even to ponder other things. I find embroidery to be a very meditative process.

Several years ago I enjoyed reading Carl Honore’s book “In Praise of Slow”. I love this book. I try to re-read it periodically to remind me that life it generally too fast and that we need to slow down. This is one of the benefits I get from embroidery. It is slow creativity.

To put it in another way:
“Take time to stop and smell the roses.”

Milk diets and moving onto solids, in the craft world

I was planning to meet up with a friend at the February craft show at Rosehill in Sydney. I went to the website to check the date and discovered that the February one is no longer running. So that leaves the August Rosehill one, and the June Darling Harbour craft show.

I guess its not that bad really. After all, in recent times its been more and more taken over by paper crafts which aren’t quite my cup of tea. Sometimes I wonder why its called the Stitches and Craft show, because there don’t seem to be many “stitches” on show…

It seems that more and more, people are wanting less and less. That is, to put in less and less effort. For me creativity is about working on a project that takes time and an investment of effort. I am not usually one who will whip something up in an afternoon (though it can be rather liberating to do this occasionally!).

I think I’m rather out of sync with much of the rest of the crafting population in this. I am happy to do time-consuming, finicky, attention to detail, in depth projects, whereas on the basis of what is being promoted at many craft shows these days, many others are not. Hmm… just some musings…

I’m not meaning that I am in any way “better” than those who want “quick”, because to be realistic, that’s how many people start their journey into crafting. But I just hope some of those people will move on from their diet of milk, and onto solids, in good time. I hope that they move from the quick and easy onto the slow, laborious and highly rewarding, more highly skilled areas of the craft world.

needlework and memories

I can’t remember if I’ve posted about this before, but its something that just crossed my mind.

I find it interesting how embroidery can become linked with certain memories, because of where you were and what was happening around you when you were making them. I have a Beth Russell needlepoint that I have been doing for a number of years. I usually work on it at Christmas time, though this last year I was so busy working on my Elizabethan embroidery that I didn’t get the chance.

Beth Russell’s “Woodpecker” needlepoint, after William Morris

One year we were staying at my aunt and uncle’s place at Christmas time, and I worked on it while we were there. During the following year my uncle became sick and died. Because of the fact that I did it at their house, for me, that embroidery will always be very special because it reminds me of my uncle.

I think that my Elizabethan embroidery will remain special because it will remind me of the period when I was coming out of my serious illness. For me it is a “getting well again” celebration embroidery.

Do you have any embroideries that have special memories linked to them?

starting school

This is completely irrelevant to this blog, but I wanted to note it anyway. My youngest child started school today. She was bursting to go, and though we didn’t have to be there until 10:40am, she started asking to go at about 9am.

She happily went off to her new classroom, and we were pleased to see that one other child that she went to preschool with is also in her class. Her teacher is lovely and was so warmly welcoming to all of us.

She’s just SO ready for school, and it was lovely to pick her up from school this afternoon and hear that she had enjoyed herself so much. She’s so excited to be going back tomorrow too!

The whole going back to school thing (for 3 members of the family) over the last two weeks is my excuse why I haven’t had much of a chance to blog. That and the fact that my mind has been taken up with school-ish things, and I haven’t had anything needleworky to say!

favourite needlework items: my embroidery hoop

I thought that today I might tell you about one of my favourite needlework items: my hoop. For many years I used cheap and nasty thin little hoops, because they were cheap. Having had some issues with my back, I came to accept that the way I was doing my needlework was not helping my back at all.

A few years ago I was teaching at the Sydney June craft show at Darling Harbour for Country Bumpkin. Each day I spent a few hours there for CB, teaching and also helping on their stall.

I met some lovely people, including some who have been on my mailing list for many years. I also got to see some of the Country Bumpkin products up close and personal.

I noticed that they had some hoops which attached to a stand that you could sit on. Rather than the huge floor standing ones, these were quite small and compact. It was a big purchase for me – much more expensive than the cheap hoops that I usually bought. But I decided that my physiotherapist would think it was a very good idea, and I did too – so I bought one.

It has now become my very favouritest (great word!!) hoop. I love it. I love the fact that it can be height adjusted so that I can bring it almost up to my eyes if I want. The hoop is on a hinge so you can easily flip it up and down, making it easy to get to the back of the work. The hoop can also be swivelled around on its stand so that you can rotate the work to get at certain parts easier. And the screw has a slot for putting a screw driver in, which means that it can be tightened much more than simply by hand.

The wood is beechwood and it is lovely and smooth. I have bound the inner ring of the hoop to give better traction for keeping the fabric in place.

I truly love my hoop. 🙂 If you’ve been considering getting one, I’d certainly recommend one!

see more of my Elizabethan panel

I am very honoured that Jane Zimmerman has added a picture of my Elizabethan embroidery panel to her Guest Artist Gallery.

As you scroll down through the veritable treasure trove of delights including the works of such luminaries as Jane Nicholas, Tanja Berlin, Marion Scoular, Melinda Sherbring and Trish Burr, you’ll find another picture of my Elizabethan panel. I’m quite chuffed for my embroidery to be in such company!

Shipping for Vetty Creations’ orders

I had a phone call yesterday from a customer who was using the Vetty Creations online shop, and had a few questions. She wanted to know if there is a minimum order quantity and if shipping is added to the prices that you see on the website.

No minimum order quantity
Vetty Creations does not have a minimum order quantity. If you want to purchase just one skein of thread to try out or to finish off your project, that’s absolutely fine by me.

No extra shipping
We do not charge a separate shipping charge. The prices you see on our website include a shipping component, so nothing extra has to be added later. What you see is what you pay. If the skein of thread you want to buy says $1.80, then that’s all you pay.

The reason I have set up my pricing like this is because I don’t like being slugged with an extra shipping charge that you can’t see up front. I hate it when you’re shopping online and you choose your order, type in your address details and THEN find out that you’re being slugged with a large shipping charge. If I don’t like that, I figure my customers don’t like it either.

There is nothing worse than needing to buy one skein of thread to finish off your project, and finding that on top of the $1.80 charge for the skein, you also have to pay another $5 for shipping. That’s one expensive skein of thread! This will not happen to you at Vetty Creations.

The prices you see are the prices you pay.

Not plaited braid stitch? – revisited

You may remember a short while ago I posted about a certain piece of Elizabethan embroidery which may or may not have featured plaited braid stitch. At the beginning of the post I suggested that I might be about to display my ignorance. It seems that while I correctly identified that the main coiling stems were not plaited braid stitch, I did miss the fact that there IS plaited braid stitch on that piece.

Today I received an email from Jane Zimmerman, a respected teacher of embroidery, and author of a book on Elizabethan embroidery. She informed me that there is in fact plaited braid stitch on that piece, leading to some pea pods, and at the top of the pods. I took a look at the cover of my book again, and sure enough, there it is! Thanks so much for pointing it out to me, Jane!

So I had a closer look at the rest of the photo. If we call the main stems, which are done in a backstitched ceylon/ladder stitch, the primary stems, and the little chain stitched curlicues as tertiary stems, then in between we have the category of secondary stems. These are little bits of stem that come off from the main stem to go to the trefoils, honeysuckle buds, the pea pods etc. And THEY are stitched in plaited braid stitch! 🙂 So it IS there, and quite a bit of it when you do notice it!

This is a close up of part of the cover of my book (“Three Hundred Years of Embroidery 1600-1900” by Pauline Johnstone). The image is dreadful quality, for which I apologise, but I really did want to show you what I meant.

Thank you Jane, I am happy to be corrected! 🙂

more knitting as a subversive activity

After my earlier post from today, I received an email from a friend of mine, Paul. Paul is himself the product of what he calls “the crafty model mother”, and obviously has a strong interest in keeping craft activities in the limelight in popular culture (yeah right!).

He commented:

No doubt you’ve already caught up on the Herald, but I saw this terribly inspirational piece and thought of the potential for in [your] area. Perhaps the specifics of craffitti is a little crass and a more refined version akin to the notion of activist needlework would be more at home north of Parramatta road.

A short article in the [local newspaper] would be an excellent opportunity to broaden the exposure of a book or two.
You might need to check out the link for advice on how to dress for the photo shoot

I particularly enjoyed the last line.

Glad you think that I should get involved, Paul. Such good advice. Come to think of it, all these squares that I’ve been knitting for Wrap With Love are so passe. After all, rather than helping to keep people warm, I could be doing something REALLY worthwhile, like “jolting people out of their comfortable reverie”…

knitting as a subversive activity…

I bet you’ve never thought of knitting like this before. I’m still trying to get my head around it…

Knitting as a subversive and politically motivated activity. Hmm…

Check out this rather unusual article I read in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/guerilla-knitters/2009/01/13/1231608708374.html

I think the idea of guerilla knitting is amusing and fun. Good on her for getting a craft activity into the public eye in a surprising way. For her publicity skills, I have nothing but admiration!

But its still a bit weird…!