Guest Post by American Fibre Artist Elaine McBride
(As an aside, if you look closely, you can see cat hair on the work in progress. Morris has taken up residence in my studio so the cat hair is part and parcel of my work until I use scotch tape as the final step...).
Re-reading your email you inquired as to what embroidery does for my soul. I'm not sure that I can quantify its importance but I can say that the months this summer of healing my fractured radius and understanding that I might not be able to draw or stitch at the level pre accident was depressing. I could not imagine my life without my hoop and a "project." I pondered that I might have to resort to reading the stockpile of books as an alternative! Fortunately I'm almost as good as new. My wrist is still a little swollen and I have night-time carpel tunnel issues but with physical therapy I have come a long way.
Since I have been regularly stitching since my grad school days circa 1978, it defines part of who I am. I sort of take it for granted that I will always be stitching, have a callous on my finger and will be cranking out a piece here and there. My output is small but I think I enjoy the slow evolution of the image from first concept to drawing to stitch and floss colour choice.
I hope this isn't overly wordy or OMG pretentious!! This is me on a Sunday morning in my jammies and my first cup of coffee! I'm excited to share my thoughts and to see where your own work takes you.
Gopika, I’m delighted to contribute to your Stitch Journal - to the cause of stitch. I appreciate the forum and also the inputs from your blog followers as to your own process. Reading your blog inspires me to focus and consider my own process.
Through my own carelessness of breaking my left wrist (I'm left handed) at the end of June I was forced to take a leave of absence from my latest project. I'm now sufficiently healed to stitch again and I'll provide you some images of this piece from the outset to its current state of "hmmmm...now I need to focus on the black background...."
I have attached images of two pieces. The first one is called "Guardians" and is currently on exhibit at "Small Expressions 2013" sponsored by the Weavers Guild of America. The rest of the images concern the current piece and show the initial object (doll), drawing transferred to fabric and the stitching thus far. My daughter's boyfriend said it was sort of "disturbing" so I think that's good! Not that I'm trying to be provocative but I have in the past had someone tell me my work was "cute" so I thought I should re-examine my imagery, intent and the execution of my work as well.
(As an aside, if you look closely, you can see cat hair on the work in progress. Morris has taken up residence in my studio so the cat hair is part and parcel of my work until I use scotch tape as the final step...). 
Re-reading your email you inquired as to what embroidery does for my soul. I'm not sure that I can quantify its importance but I can say that the months this summer of healing my fractured radius and understanding that I might not be able to draw or stitch at the level pre accident was depressing. I could not imagine my life without my hoop and a "project." I pondered that I might have to resort to reading the stockpile of books as an alternative! Fortunately I'm almost as good as new. My wrist is still a little swollen and I have night-time carpel tunnel issues but with physical therapy I have come a long way. 
Since I have been regularly stitching since my grad school days circa 1978, it defines part of who I am. I sort of take it for granted that I will always be stitching, have a callous on my finger and will be cranking out a piece here and there. My output is small but I think I enjoy the slow evolution of the image from first concept to drawing to stitch and floss colour choice. I hope this isn't overly wordy or OMG pretentious!! This is me on a Sunday morning in my jammies and my first cup of coffee! I'm excited to share my thoughts and to see where your own work takes you.
PS: Tonight driving home from work there was a gorgeous sunset with my colours of blue, brilliant orange, yellow and grey. I was hoping to get to an exit to take a picture but, darn it, by the time I get through the traffic mess, it was gone - so fleeting. I always try to capture those colours where possible to draw upon for inspiration. This time of year - when the air is dry, clear and crisp - makes for the most beautiful sunsets one can imagine. Well, my capturing it was not meant to be....
Elaine McBride is a Fibre Artist [Master of Fine Arts in textiles from The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History (Eastern Illinois University) and a Master of Arts in Textile Design (Northern Illinois University)] She lives in Bridgewater Massachusetts, U.S.A with her husband Tom and two cats.
Drawn to the intimacy and portability of embroidery [I can curl up and stitch almost anywhere including my studio, the car (as a passenger of course!) or the couch], she seeks to interpret through embroidery – expressing those little nagging pieces of information that have nowhere else to go. Adding that the meditative aspect of stitching provides respite from daily stress.
Awesome! Gopika, thanks for taking this thread across the world. Lovely, contribution.
ReplyDeleteYou have certainly picked up on the 'thread' of things Julia :-), Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading and writing in.
DeleteElaine, I have a question for you - did you draw directly from the doll into the fabric? Am really curious about your process of transcribing the 'still life' onto fabric and how you decide on the stitches & colours and what you are really exploring through the image -in this case, the doll you are working with/upon. Well, I can see its much more than just 'a question'.....:-)
ReplyDeleteHi Gopika - with respect to how I transfer the image to muslin to stitch I begin with an actual drawing on paper. My drawing tool of choice is a rapidigraph pen as the cross hatch of pen and ink closely resembles stitch marks. Once I have a drawing or some studies on paper I play around with them, maybe reducing, enlarging with a copy machine - I finalize a composition on paper, tape it to a light table (specially constructed by Tom may years ago), size a piece of muslin with spray starch until it resembles the texture of parchment, tape it over the drawing and then again use the rapidograph to trace the image directly on the fabric. As for color schemes, I used to plan it out but now I just grab one skein of floss and go. The rest seems to fall in place and it's actually a problem solving exercise to combine colors and to see the emergence of my image. It will go from a linear drawing to a more painterly rendered image - so basically it's like painting with thread but less messy than paint! The stitches are typically random seed, fill in stitches. Sometimes I find a traditional embroidery stitch (the doll's hair has many French Knots) that suits a certain passage. I enjoy using the blanket stitch for the border and adhering the stitched image onto a background fabric, usually black which is my hallmark for the final presentation. As for the subject matter, in this instance, I chose an old doll from my shelf of misfit toys in my studio. This doll seemed to need my attention and that is why I chose her. I don't think there's any deep narrative (at least a conscious one) other than I enjoy giving new life to a part of my childhood (or it could be a familiar object) and through drawing, composing, stitching, etc. I am able to understand every aspect of that object - the shape, color, curve, texture....I meditate on my association with that object as I stitch it and give it new life and meaning. Often there is a continuity in my pieces in that I utilize a motif and element that anchors each piece to the one before it and the one that will follow it. It could be the blackbird, barbed wire, leaves, a color. I hope that explains my process a bit - hope it makes sense as I've in Red Sox world series fatigue!! Best,Elaine
ReplyDeleteThanks Elaine for this elaborate explanation of your process and the insights behind the selection of your doll. I had no idea that you were a baseball fan. I am not up to scratch on the match schedule but hope that you have recovered from the fatigue of watching the series because I have some more questions for you. I relate to the idea of just picking up some floss because that is what I like doing too. There are some colours that I am more partial to than others and tend to form a palette around them and when I have tried to deliberately break this and create a new scheme I have not really found myself responding well to this, so maybe its the lazy way but I stick with it. The question I have is about this particular doll: you said that she was one of those misfit toys in your studio. Its this statement that has made me curious - are the toys on this shelf all from your childhood and why do you still keep them there? Any particular reason? You also mention a deep narrative and that as you stitch you meditate upon the shape, colour, curve and texture and your association with the object - giving it new meaning and life. It would be wonderful if you could share some of the deeper thoughts evolving through the work you have already done on this doll, to unfold some aspects of the deeper narrative and the meaning you now attach to this doll and how she came to be a misfit among your childhood toys etc.
DeleteHmmm....let me ponder the meaning of my shelf of misfit objects! Besides toys there are items including handmade gifts from my kids when they were younger, "awards" such as singing medals from jr. high, found objects from nature and objects procured from antique shops, etc. I have elsewhere in my studio antique textiles (handkerchiefs, doilies, embroidered pillowcases....). It's a manageable collection and it represents for me a repository of nuggets of information that might suggest a narrative for a piece. Sometimes it's a combination of items or maybe an item and an essence of an item that I feel compelled to put to fabric and stitch. Besides these objects I go back to a book that has helped me to formulate my ideas - Gaston Bachelard's "Poetics of Space." He describes our connection to places and things that take us back to the environments that shaped us. With respect to the doll in this piece, bringing her back through first drawing her, choosing how to represent her in thread, becoming familiar with every aspect (the messy hair, the plastic joints) - this becomes a meditative process. Not only do I recall hours spent playing with her but I also recall the highlights of the environments in which I played with her. I have childhood memories both good and bad. When an object speaks to me it is typically a recall of a memory or an essence from my childhood. This doll is obviously more literal in that sense but what I wanted to convey here was the placement of this doll in a story/narrative that has some mystery. Also, the piece has evolved somewhat from the images posted above - the piece has been applied to black fabric and I'm bringing down the color through neutral threads. I'll send an image when she's completed. I hope this makes sense with respect to your query above - I highly recommend "The Poetics of Space" - I refer to it from time to time for inspiration.
DeleteElaine, you speak of the placement of this doll within a narrative/story that has some mystery but the piece we see is a stand-alone embroidery which focusses on the doll. There is nothing to suggest a narrative other than one that we choose to give it, if that is what we are inclined towards. Would you please elaborate on the narrative in this particular context. I love the idea of found objects of the kind that you have mentioned - misfits on your shelf, becoming part of such elaborate meditations. I must check out Poetics of Space for it sounds intriguing but I am most curious about the narrative you mention and how it is coming into play. Are there more pieces that go into making a series or something? How does the narrative unfold?
DeleteHi Gopika, Actually this piece reflects a combination of two items from my shelf - the doll and the dog. The dog is a replication of a "chalk dog" - a trinket from c. the 1950's that was probably given out as prize at fair and carnivals here in the U.S. I'm not sure where I acquired it but I've drawn it several times because it's so strange. The bird that she holds has figured in my pieces before. It's a crow from a picture I took in Seattle and just liked it. Maybe this piece fails to evoke much from the viewer but for me, the maker, it's a combination of elements that represent my childhood and also layering together items that defy their actual scale. I've had some issues with this piece as I've attempted to expand it from the format you've put up on the blog into the borders. Right now, "she's" still in the hoop and I've embellished the background more and have also toned down the lavender which has always bothered me. I would not call this piece in the current form successful or that engaging but I think it was valuable for me as an exercise in depicting this doll in thread. Sometimes a piece like this will inform the next one. I have ignored her lately. She's always next to my chair if I'm inclined to give her a go! Maybe the value of her is that while drawing her and stitching her it brought back memories of my time when I actually played with her.
DeleteThanks for all this techical advice. I'm sure numerous textile artists have faced the complexity of drawing or pattern transfer to cloth.
ReplyDeleteI have an other question, do you know what was regarded as " disturbing " by the boy. The fact that a grown-up woman worked with a child toy or the fact of drawing a doll or ... ?
Thanks for all this techical advice. I'm sure numerous textile artists have faced the complexity of drawing or pattern transfer to cloth.
ReplyDeleteI have an other question, do you know what was regarded as " disturbing " by the boy. The fact that a grown-up woman worked with a child toy or the fact of drawing a doll or ... ?
Hi Guillaume, and you are welcome! I still employ the same technique for transferring the image to fabric (work it up as a drawing and then trace to the fabric using a light table)however I've evolved or developed some confidence to allow for some design and composition decisions to evolve during the stitching process.
ReplyDeleteAs for the "disturbing" comment made by my daughter's boyfriend when he observed the image in process, I think some of it was in jest or he may have meant disturbing in the way that a "scary" clown may be disturbing. For me this doll was a remnant of my childhood - part of the Barbie Doll family (Skipper or Scooter - who knows?!)that filled many hours. If anything this doll image is more sad than disturbing as I see her now as disheveled and worn out and remembering that she used to be "cool" and the epitome of girlhood....maybe, it's been awhile since I stitched her and the original doll is still on a shelf in my studio. I leave it up to you to make your own interpretation based on your own experiences. Thank you for the comments and interest in my work!