Sunday, July 30, 2017

Scribbles

It appears that I haven't posted a picture of this piece that was made early in 2015.  Scribbles, Along the Way and All that Glitter were all accepted for the 21st Through the Needle's Eye traveling exhibit which opens in Brevard, North Carolina in about 3 weeks.

 

The title is Scribbles because there are no straight lines.  The lines are all a little wonky.  This piece features a flowering vine that weaves through the grid.  Vine and flowers are made from fine wiggly wire wrapped with thread to a wire core, sewn together to the grid with beads for stamen. 

A water soluble stabilizer was used to construct this piece using machine & hand sewing, netting, sheers, beads, metallic & synthetic threads including Bart & Francis “Metalo Fantsy”. The embroidery is mounted on stretcher bars within the frame.



2017 I.O.L.I. Convention at King of Prussia, PA

This year I took classes with Jane Atkinson.  We designed lace using logarithmic grids in the morning class.  We designed scarves in the afternoon class.  I've got a pile of drawings made by experimenting with the log grids.

We learned to calculate the Tex number for a thread or yarn.  The Tex number is a relative size which aids in determining the appropriate size of grid.  The Tex number is the number of grams per kilometer of fiber.  So if the label has the weight and length, you can convert to grams and meters, divide and adjust the decimal point for kilometers.  Otherwise you can measure and cut off 10 meters of the fiber, weigh it in grams and multiply by 100.  Then consult a table showing Tex and grid sizes for various fibers.  In class I cut and weighed a yarn I bought in Sedona, AZ and got a suggested grid size of 11 mm.  I tried working a sample going from 12 mm to 11, 10, 9....  The sample has Torchon ground with diamonds of cloth stitch and half stitch.  The sample can visually confirm the choice of grid size.  For more information, refer to Contemporary Lace for You
by Jane Atkinson, ISBN 978-0-9551512-1-7.

On Wednesday we were "Making Waves".  Here's my waves so far.  We were given a pricking and used our choice of threads.  It is worked in cloth stitch with extra twists to show the motion of the water.  There are long, highly twisted threads at the top which will curl over like the waves when pins are removed.  

Creative Spark

The theme for the International Organization of Lace, Inc. lace contest this year was "Kites and Keys - taking the world by storm " and was inspired by B. Franklin's legendary kite experiment.

Here's my entry:

I was surprised to win the popular vote award and a one year membership.