Sketchy idea:

Beginnings:

Some more progress:

I’ve done quite a bit more work since then, I just need to get more disciplined about taking progress shots. But I’m having fun with a technique I haven’t tried before, so looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

She opened the little parcel sometime after I left, and thankfully took a photo – because I forgot to! She posted it on facebook this arvo, so now I’m posting it here:

Baby clothes for Emma

I partly regret giving the blue and white hat… She’s already getting ‘are you having a boy?’ comments. And well, I just like blue. I’m not a huge fan of the blue-for-boys, pink-for-girls thing. But not knowing how traditional (or not) her family is, I perhaps should have stuck to white… Ah well, I like the hat. And I’m sure she can mix and match

White baby jumper, blocking

I’ve been looking around for a blocking kit: big jigsaw fitted blocking pieces with pins and wire. But I’m thinking I’ll have to buy them online. Even in a big city like Melbourne noone seems to have them.

So I’ve made do with my ironing board, an old towel and a big sheet of corrugated cardboard.

Red cardigan, blocking

Just to sew the buttons on now!

Red cardigan, shoulder detail

But most nights (and all weekend) this is how I currently look:

Me, stitching away.

I really have to get this damn cross stitch finished, or I’ll never get onto any of the big ideas I’m desperate to start. Must. Finish. Current. Project. Hnnngh.

When the interaction is daily, the punctuation can evolve into a sentence: “How are you today?” may over the weeks morph into “How was your barbecue on Saturday?” A small set of in-jokes might emerge, or a shared story.

Now a leap. One of those stories gives you a deeper insight. Directions to a journal, a daily public recording of one person’s creative thoughts, inspirations and musings. Suddenly, you see the inner workings of the external face. A simple cup of coffee and a hello, but also the creativity and thinkingness behind the daily routine.

A beautiful, burning, vital soul exposed through writing and art, but totally veiled in face-to-face reality. She would like that I think: the social construction of her own reality.

I think I need to create something that describes this better. An embroidery maybe?

They are just so fiddly with all of the quarter stitches and tiny groups of colour.

So I went from this:

Peacock, leafy detail

to this:

Peacock leafy detail, crosses completed

Huzzah!

I’ve started the back stitching, which is much simpler, I can do that in front of some Red Dwarf episodes and kick back a little.

And an arty close up to celebrate:

I knew something weird was up. I checked my mail after watching some Grand Designs (as you do) and I suddenly had a heap of new followers. A little digging and I found this:

Radared! (is that a word? Too excited for vocabulary

So, now I do the pathetic thing and refresh the page and watch the note count go up. Don’t judge me! (Okay, you can judge me, it’s childish! :0)

Anyway, this is where I’m at with the peacock at the moment:

Peacock cross stitch, progress

I’ve mentioned before that the leaves are a slog, but really I don’t have many left, so I can see the light at the end of the peacock… I’m working in here:

Peacock, leafy detail

Once I’ve finished the leaves/branch/pears I’ll back stitch all of this then move back to the peacock’s tail, and then to the trunk of the tree.

Getting there :0)

The piece in question, my chain stitch Jupiter embroidery:

Jupiter in chain stitch

And a link to my (very brief) post on tumblr, with more pictures: http://pardalote.tumblr.com/post/18370995618/jupiter-embroidery-done-my-own-design-loosely

Description

This is a small embroidery: about 9cm wide and 13cm tall. It’s stitched with a needle and thread onto ivory linen fabric. [Note that it's not knitting or crochet, I can understand how some folk might be confused by that, as chain stitch 'en mass' can look a little like stocking stitch, the most common knitted fabric stitch.]

I used this sequence of images from NASA as the basis for the work, but I reinterpreted the sequence a little so that I could do the squiggliness I wanted.

Jupiter’s red spots via JPL

I sketched the bands and spots onto paper, and decided on colours. Next I used measurements from my sketch to draw this on the linen using a water soluble embroidery marker. Once I started stitching I worked from the top down. I attempted to stitch from left to right when I imagined the bands moving left to right, and vice versa. The top section is fairly linear, broken up by the occasional jovian spot in satin stitch. As I worked further down towards the turbulent areas I started to mix up the directionality more, working from the edges of each band into its centre, rippling out around the large spots.

Jupiter in progress

I wanted my stitching to demonstrate that the jovian bands are fluid, moving around the planet and swirling it up a storm at region boundaries.

I chose to use almost entirely chain stitch for two reasons:

1. I loved the way chain stitch could be used to create curves, as well as straight lines with directionality. Related to this, I also like the way as a chain stitch line curves, it lifts slightly on the outside edge. This gave such a subtle, graceful wave-like sense to the curve that I wanted for this fluid surface.
2. And more pragmatically and slightly embarrassingly: I wanted to learn how to chain stitch.

I’ve played with lots of little experimental embroidery pieces in many different stitches in the past. I’ve also completed many charted cross stitch pieces. But I wanted to delve more deeply into embroidery, and so decided to concentrate on one technique and work towards mastery, and I started with chain stitch. Obviously I’m not expecting to attain mastery, but I’m a strong believer in striving for it. Anyway, I ramble.

Completion

Currently the piece is tucked away waiting to be framed. I’ve since completed another chain stitch piece, larger but simpler in many senses: a stitched Voronoi diagram with some organic globules pushed up against it. I might blog about that some other time.

The Jupiter piece isn’t for sale for a combination of reasons:

• I made it for my own pleasure. It’s a subject that I love, that I made to hang in my own house. It’s for me.
• I made it to learn and practice a technique, so I don’t feel it’s a piece that’s made as a saleable, quality piece.
• I have no idea how long it took me to do, so I can’t honestly put a price to it. It took a long time, many, many hours, so I doubt anyone would be willing to pay what it’s worth. If you love embroidery, you know what I mean

I am honestly humbled by the interest this piece has attracted. But I’m also very inspired by knowing that I’m not the only one that loves to combine science and maths with art, craft and beauty.

And Jupiter really is a beautiful place.

The leaves ARE a slog. Thousands and thousands of crosses quarter stitches, all in blended threads, in groups of at MOST five stitches. But I’m slogging through it, determined not to start a new embroidery until this is done. I break it up a little, doing a bit of back stitching when the leaves get too much. Like this:

Peacock cross stitch detail

This is an older photo, I’ve actually progressed much further than this now. But still it’s been a long haul, and I’m hoping that once I’ve finished the leaves and go back onto the peacock, the background and the grasses underneath… that it will feel less like a chore.

And stitching shouldn’t feel like a chore. But although this is beautiful, the reason I’m not enjoying it is because it’s not my design. Now that I’ve a taste of making my own designs, I want to do more. My Jupiter embroidery was a labour of love, and I have so many more ideas ready to go…

The one I’m currently sitting on is the view out my window each morning: six or so hot air balloons over the yellow-blue skyline. Horizon of jumbled low buildings. A steeple.

I’ll get there.

But I’ve always *made* things. I’ve always had three projects on the go, and 400 more lined up in my mind. So I’m hoping to use this place as an informal documentation of my work, and my ideas: to keep track of it all.

I was diligent/regular in my last blog, posting two or three times a week. But as it got more popular I started to get bogged down in trying to make it perfect; investing hours in every post. The aim for this crafting blog is for it to be more of a sketch book: quick posts to record progress, to chart my ideas and inspiration, and take little snaps of finished objects.

Looking forward to filling this space with handmade