Category: The Work of My Hands

Cooking up a Storm

Sometimes an idea takes a hold of me and I get a bit carried away.

So it was when I went looking for some fake food for my friend (and former Flat Buddy)’s two year old.

There wasn’t much interesting food online, so I decided to make some myself.

I had a blast, and duly sent off an always-fresh hamper of goodies. Of course, now Dragon wants his own set, so I have more to do, but it was a nice little project, and even more fun knowing that the recipient’s parents are just as likely to play with it as she is!

(Dragon took a lot of these photos while we were at his grandparents’ over half term, and that combined with an unfamiliar light profile means that it’s taking ages to edit these. I’ll keep adding them as I get through them, but consider this your amuse bouche.)

Playing Away

I have a confession to make, I’ve been flirting with another media recently.

(No, I haven’t started vlogging.)

I keep finding myself craving paint, pencils, and brushes. This has only been amplified by a ‘thank you’ voucher for Greyfriars Art Shop which is gently smouldering a hole in my pocket.

I’ve been working on Little Lion’s baby book (and catching up with Dragon’s book) and I’m really enjoying it. Sometimes I can even release my grip enough to let Dragon* help.

As my maternity leave comes to a close, I’m pondering the next steps for Misericordia. Since I’m running a part-part (part?) time operation, the evolution of my work can feel very slow sometimes. My mind certainly works a lot faster than my fingers!

I definitely want to work a little more drawing into my embroidery, but what that looks like remains to be seen.

While I’m pondering, what are your favourite art supplies? This voucher needs spending!

*Check out the finished birthday turtle costume finished well over a week before his birthday!

A Little Sketchy

I’m feeling a little becalmed this week.

I’m at the sketching phase with the next part of the Ark Project and I’ve been trying to use more 3D ways of working through ideas and potential problems before jumping in and cutting things.

I’m playing with some new things to start post-maternity leave, but they’re still very preliminary, so I don’t have anything to sink my teeth into.

But a little quality time with a sketchbook is good for the soul, right?

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Blast Off

Here’s the ark curtain I’ve been agonising over for a year.

ELJC ark curtain - Misericordia 2015

Sometimes large pieces take a long time because of the time it takes to physically complete them, and sometimes it’s the existential crisis that takes the time. This piece was particularly hard-fought, and took lots of both.

The initial design fell together really quickly, and the applique went very easily. I decided to see what it looked like at that point in the ark, even though it felt unresolved.

10th ark open

I wanted to combine elements which reflected the community’s place within the Scottish and Jewish artistic landscape. There are nods to trade union and suffragette banners as well as elements of the Scottish Arts and Crafts movements.

The skeleton of it was right, but it needed more texture and movement.

ELJC ark curtain - Misericordia 2015

I was particularly pleased with the banner, the silk is gorgeously papery in feel, and lets me give a feeling of flutter into the text, but that contrasted with the flatness of the tree.

ELJC ark curtain - Misericordia 2015

I stitched things, I picked them out again. I added hundreds of seed stitches to the French knots in the etrogim (yellow things like monster lemons). I pondered quilting techniques, tone on tone embroidery, trapunto, and finally did a little tentative leaf embroidery.

ELJC ark curtain - Misericordia 2015

I stood back, I looked up close. I hung it on a door, I laid it on the floor. I took photos in black and white, and in colour. I haunted Pinterest, I copied Art Nouveau drawings, paintings and furniture. Finally, I decided on the only sure thing and applied an Arbitrary Deadline, Little Lion’s baby blessing.

ELJC ark curtain - Misericordia 2015

I think it’s worked in the end. At any rate, I now have a template to base the other pieces on, so hopefully I’ve paid my debt to my muse in advance.

Ark design and construction: Sorell

Metalwork design: Lauren Fox

10, 9, 8, 7, 6

This piece has been a year in the making.

 

It will form part of the ark furnishings for the Liberal Jewish community in Edinburgh. This includes a curtain for the ark, a mantle for the Torah scrolls and a tablecloth to be put under the Torah scrolls when they’re out of the ark. This is the everyday set, there will also be a set for the High Holy Days.

I unveiled a preview of the curtain in September, but I wasn’t happy with the lack of detail, so I took it back and worked on it some more.

Having held onto it for so long, I’m a little apprehensive about letting it out into the wide world for good.

Part of my apprehension comes from the fact that this is the first of six pieces, three of which have to maintain some sort of consistent style over what is likely to be a fairly significant period of time.

However at the moment, I’m pretty happy with it. There’s a point in quilting where a piece ceases to be the sum of it’s pieced parts and becomes a quilt. I got a little frisson of that yesterday when I put the lining into the curtain. All of a sudden it was more finished than unfinished, and it gave me a definite push towards the last few stitches.

After a year of moving through my hands, I thought it needed a wash (plus there was the water-soluble glue I experimented with), but there was a little fear as the blue silk was still a bit runny.

But the pre-wash fairies were on my side, and it all came out unscathed.

I even got a little sunshine to dry it in. Being a particularly paranoid person, I popped a towel over it on the line, just in case of bird strike or (more likely) a little rain.

I’m afraid that due to a hungry baby and other delays this is a two part post. I’ll unveil the final piece next week, but you can see the evolution of the design in previous posts.

How Do You Know When To Stop?

Do you struggle against the overwhelming desire to add one more strawberry to your pavlova, causing a near-fatal whipped cream slide?

Perhaps you just make one tap too many as you perfect the nose of your latest humano-leonine sculpture.

If you are drowning beneath symphony manuscripts or tarrying in front of nearly finished canvases, Misericordia Ltd can offer you the perfect solution.

For a practically trivial consideration we will post you an Arbitrary Deadline in plain, unmarked packaging.

Simply apply your Arbitrary Deadline (it is acid free and water soluble) to the medium of your choice and await developments*.

*Misericordia Ltd cannot guarantee results when product is not used according to the instructions. Common mistakes include spreading product too thinly or failing to allow product to dry completely. Please note that AD is not for human consumption. This does not affect your statutory rights.

Moderate or Good, Occasionally Poor

I’m wafting gently through the weeks at the moment.

The weather is nothing special, I’m in the middle of two medium to large projects that I can’t really show at the moment, and my companions are mostly silent (but good company).

It’s quite soothing, but the odd day of excitement (Dragon’s school induction!) takes me rather by surprise and I end up needing half a day staring out the window to get over it.

I’m still picking away at things, even if it is in slow motion.

N+S Wedding Commission

I got just about the perfect email the other week.

N & S hand embroidered wedding hoop - Misericordia 2015

It was from a lady that had seen my work at Out of the Blue Arts Market in December and talked to me about her sister’s wedding. She wanted me to make a piece based on the wedding invitation, and was very organised in sending me some photos of the invitation to look at.

N & S hand embroidered wedding hoop - Misericordia 2015

It was nice to be able to work directly from something the couple had designed themselves, and being the font geek I am, I had to modify one of the fonts to match the rather unusual Western/Art Nouveau font used on the invitation (even though the really interesting letters don’t appear in the hoop text).

N & S hand embroidered wedding hoop - Misericordia 2015

I also got to use a new 20cm sized hoop, which is nice and big for pieces with a lot of detail or that need some space around different elements.

I want to start to tweak my craft fair stands to show more of the commissioning process. Given the other constraints on my time, I need to start to concentrate on that part of my work. Do you think I should recreate the mess on the table next to my side of the sofa?

Thread and Heather

One of my resolutions for this year was to get my work seen by more people in person.

to do

It may surprise you, but it seems that not everyone impulse purchases embroideries!

I was thrilled to learn that a new shop was opening near me, called Thread and Heather, selling handmade craft and supplies. I am particularly pleased that they’re stocking embroidery thread, because I hate trekking into town to get it and sometimes ordering online seems like an awful faff for just one skein.

Unfortunately, I missed the opening, but the photos of the shop look great, and I’m looking forward to stopping by this weekend.

If you’re too far away from Edinburgh to peruse in person, you can check them out on their website or on Facebook.

 

Not Quite Hibernating

Is there a word for hibernating which evokes lying in the sunshine?

All this baby stuff is certainly different this time around, or perhaps I am different, or (even more likely) it’s a little of both.

I remember feeling an overwhelming urge and ability to accomplish things when Dragon was born. This resulted in the Three by Three quilt (which is much in use at the moment) and a fairly extensive baby book.

This time, while the astonishing range and throughput of infant digestive systems no longer makes me weep, I’m really struggling to do… anything.

Instead piles of things I’m halfway through are mushrooming up around the house while I read Agatha Christie and stare vaguely at the walls.

On the other hand, I sold two pieces this week, so perhaps all is not lost.

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