Saturday, July 27, 2013

Watercolor, paper & stitch -- Take one

I've been more and more attracted to embroidered artwork using multiple mediums. 

A stitch grid in my sketchbook. 


For example, Jessica Kelly is doing gorgeous work on vintage illustration plates. And I'm so inspired by the amazing lighted Tesla piece I received from Rachel Lynn Rose in the Phat Quarter Blinded by Science swap. (Featured in my most recent Big Yes! on this blog and picked up by the Needlwork group on craftgossip.com.)


A watercolor color wheel from a 16 mm film reel, in my sketchbook.


So, I'm making my first tentative steps with alternative media with these little stitched watercolor pieces in my sketchbook.

Sketchbook page.


I used the tutorial Jessica wrote for the second issue of the &Stitches e-zine as a guide.  (The e-zine is not being published right now, but past issues are still available. And be sure to visit their wonderful &Stitches blog for ongoing stitching tutorials!)

Slanty City, watercolor sketchbook page. Want to stitch this when
my skills improve. 

Her guide taught readers how to stitch on vintage paper. I applied the same technique to some of my watercolor doodle-sketches.

I'm really excited to explore this more. Keeping the stitching even was more challenging than I'd expected, but like anything else, it became easier over time. 

Random watercolor doodles to stitch.

Now I'm looking at every scrap of paper (receipts, junk mail, cardboard boxes) and imagining it covered in rich, textural patterns of raised stitch.

Go!

3 comments:

  1. Oooooh, I love where this is heading!!

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  2. Olisa, have you heard of Kelli Nina Perkins? She's a mixed media artist who created something called paper cloth -- layers of all different kinds of paper glued to a muslin background, covered with paints, watercolors, inks, pastels, and then embellished with stitching and beading. I think you might be interested in that technique.

    Her website: http://ephemeralalchemy.blogspot.com/

    The book about paper cloth: http://www.amazon.com/Stitch-Alchemy-Kelli-Perkins/dp/1596681136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375824387&sr=8-1&keywords=stitch+alchemy

    I've used it quite a bit in my own work; if you want to see examples you can find some under the tag "mixed media."

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    Replies
    1. Very cool! I'm not familiar with her work, but I have made paper cloth and I'm working on a larger, woven piece with it. LOVE the stuff. Thanks for the awesome suggestion!

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