Big Yes! Nikola Tesla by Rachel Lynn Rose

Rachel Lynn Rose is not afraid. Not of electricity. Nor insects. Nor boundaries.

Nikola Tesla, 2013, by Rachel Lynn Rose.

When I received her Nikola Tesla embroidery in the Phat Quarter Blinded by Science Swap, I could not believe my eyes.

Unlit.

The design of the piece, stitched in fine thread against a trompe l'oeil ground fabric, is simple and the stitching is perfect.

But Rachel did not stop there. She inserted LED lights to form globes in each of Tesla's outstretched hands. She even created rays around the globes with conductive thread.

Conductive thread around the LED globe.

I first noticed Rachel's facility with united various mediums in her textile art when she embroidered the top of a Coney Island hotdog container. So clever AND perfectly rendered.

And her collection of eerily embroidered insect art, Invisible Empire, is luminous and strange.

Nikola Tesla glows! 

She is simply amazing. Please spend some time with her beautiful work. I can't wait to see more. I'm beyond inspired.

"Big Yes!" is a blog feature where I share, with the artist’s permission, a piece of textile art that has opened my eyes to the possibility of what we can create.  When faced with things that are truly beautiful or moving or that fill me with awe, I try to say yes. More than that, Big Yes.

Paint, WIPs & Stormtroopers (just because)

The last few weeks have been more about experimentation with mediums than finishing art projects.

Painted fabric paper. Needs more glitter!

Mostly, I've been painting vintage fabrics, cotton fabric samples and fabric papers that I made with my friends Juline, Kate, Monique and Katherine a couple of months ago. (We used this tutorial.)

Oil paints on squares from a fabric sample book.

I'm trying out oils, acrylics and watercolors. I have an idea for a woven piece that I want to attempt that was inspired by the El Anatsui exhibition I saw a couple of weeks ago at the Brooklyn Museum. But I've never done this kind of work before, so I'm in the very early draft phase.

Fabric paper made with cheesecloth.

And I'm going through a French knot obsession, which I think most stitchers go through. Is there anything more textural and beautiful than French knots? And feather stitch?

French knots, ink, oil paint and stitch on vintage linen.

WIPs and sketches are strewn about my apartment. I'm grateful that my friends have not disowned me because of the chaotic mess.

An uncharacteristically monochromatic piece. But still, French knots WIP.

I was so inspired by Iviva Olenick's "embroidery slam" #BrooklynTweets. I've been finding poetry everywhere. And stitching a bit of it.

A found poem in stitch.

Last weekend, my fiber arts group Durham String Thing taught weaving at the North Carolina Maker Faire. The event itself was a little overwhelming... so much creative energy packed into a small, loud space. But my boyfriend and I got to try on a handmade Stormtrooper's helmet. That set my Star Wars loving nerd-heart aflame!

Stormtrooper O.

Stormtrooper A.

Warning: Attempt Jedi mind tricks at your own risk.

I'm Ready for My Close-up, Mr. DeMille

"I am big, it's the pictures that got small!" -- Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950).

Frame 11, 2013.

Oh, you, Ru. I've stitched you on buses, planes and trains. In cafes and bars. With a needle in my vein during a 6-hour infusions of iron. In my own bed and in others. And you are finally ready for your close-up, dear girl.

Frame 11, my first ever x stitch project, is on its way to the magic-artist-ringleader, Aubrey Longley-Cook, in Atlanta, to join its 34 other stitched cellmates in Aubrey's animated short video.

A close-up of Frame 11, 2013.

The video will premiere in Aubrey's gallery show at the Barbara Archer Gallery in September and will screen as a part of the outdoor art installation the Window Project, also this fall.

More to come as Aubrey's bigger project comes together. For now, let me say, this has been a great learning process for me. My stitches are deeply flawed. Reading the chart was harder than I'd realized. My friend Kate, who is the neatest cross stitcher in the world and taught me how to do cross stitch, would be horrified by the back of the piece. 

Frame 20, by Nathan Sharratt, conceptual artist. 

I'm am humbled by the complications of this precise kind of stitching, which I will try again. But for now, I want to get back to building stitches freehand, playing with paint and thread and poetry I found at #BrooklynTweets last week. (More about meeting the artist Iviva Olenick in person, soon!)

Visit Iviva Olenick's blog for more about her artwork.

I feel a bit lost and loose after this project. And a little sad... I'll miss the frame. And I'll miss working with Aubrey, who is a warm, hugely creative soul. 

Ah well.  

#BrooklynTweets bound!

I’m headed to Brooklyn tomorrow to visit one of my very favorite families in the whole wide world, the KINSELLAS! 

Woot-hoo!

And I timed my trip to so that I can meet an artist that I greatly admire, Iviva Olenick, and participate in a fantastic art experience she is producing.

As part of her EmbroideryPoems #BrooklynTweets project, Iviva has created
a poetry reading and musical performance. As poets read and musicians play, embroiderers will stitch snippets of lyrics and verse to create new, “found” poems.

It should be a boundary-pushing, artistic night.

Kevin Kinsella's art criticism blog, New First Unexpected.

I’m also thrilled that poet, blogger and Russian translator Kevin Kinsella will be reading his poetry at the event.

So if you’re in the NYC area on Thursday, 6/6/13, please come to the Local 61. I’d love to meet you!

Here are the details:
Thursday, June 6, 6-9pm
@61 Local, 61 Bergen Street near Smith Street
F/G to Bergen Street

Read more about Olenick’s project on the New York Times Magazine blog.

And if you're there, please say hello, OK? 

Chroma de Newton

Color wheels are amazing orbs.

Chroma de Newton, 2013.

When I found a color wheel hand-drawn by one of my all-time science crushes, Sir Isaac Newton, I felt giddy. His fascination with the color spectrum thrilled me. And like most things I stumble upon that capture my attention, I instantly wanted to stitch it.

Detail of chain stitched "grout."

But I don't wind up stitching everything I want to. Time constraits, my own distractibility, an overly exuberant nature... these all stop me from tackling every project I play with in my sketchbook. 

Newton's color wheel.

So I filed away Newton's color wheel with all of my other ideas.  

Then, early one morning, in those liminal hours between sleeping, dreaming and waking, the image of Newton's drawing flooded back into my imagination.

"Chroma" in Morse code along the edge. Always.

I had just selected the "Blinded by Science" theme for the Phat Quater swap (which I host), but I had no idea what I wanted to make. In the dark, almost colorless bedroom, a shimmering image Newton's color wheel, suspended over something like multi-colored, mosaic stones, floated into my consciousness. I woke up describing it before I understood what I was even talking about. 

And, just then, I knew that I had to try to make it for the uber talented Elli Course, a.k.a. Sister Twisty.

Newton's codes, in his own writing, for light refraction.

But how to translate the mosaics of my imagination into a textile piece? I decided to experiment with paper-pieced, 3/4 inch hexagons. And to simulate the charcoal grout with a think chain stitch.

Silver foxy Sir Isaac.

I've never stitched over paper-pieced ground fabric before. But I love layers in my textiles (layers of stitch, layers of fabric) so I will go back to this again. Perhaps try different shapes for my paper-piecing.

Chroma de Newton, 2013, framed.

Chroma de Newton's journey to York, U.K., was fraught, but after being locked up in British customs for what I'm sure was bad behavior, it finally found its way to Elli.

More colors and color wheels in my life, please. Just bought vintage film reel because with reminded me of a color wheel... time to play with that!

Ev-ev-ev-everyday I'm hustlin'

Stitching until my fingers are bloody and raw.

Frame 11, with chart.

Trying to meet my deadline for Aubrey Longley-Cook's X stitch animation project. Makin' progress, but it isn't fast. Stitching never is.

5/20/13 WIP, Frame 11.

Meanwhile, here is another artist's completed Frame 7. Love the colors by Jess Berhhart! For more images, check out Aubrey's site.

Frame 7, by Jess Bernhart, 2013. From Aubrey Longley-Cook's site.

 OK, back to the bloody fingers...

Insomnia stitching. 

Every day I'm hustlin'

WIP It Good

Making progress on Frame 11 for the Aubrey Longley-Cook x stitch animation. I'm crazy excited about this project. My deadline for my frame is the end of May, so I have some serious stitching to do.

WIP, Frame 11, as of 5/14/13.

Aubrey's collaborative project is part of his solo show at the Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta this September. He is developing a new website for the animation, which looks amazing in the beta version. As soon as it's available, I'll post about it. For now, let me say it has been SUCH a treat to work with Aubrey. Aside from his huge talent and drive, he is a warm, expansive man with incredible energy and passion for his art and for the artistic community. He is inspiring to me in terms of his discipline, his artwork and the encouragement he gives us.

Even though my family and friends are incredibly supportive of my sometimes unconventional decisions, when I told them that I'd be going to Atlanta three times in three weeks (in the middle of a full blown anemia flare), I think it seemed a bit nuts. But I am so glad I made the decision to participate in this project.

Fused glass plate for my mother.

With my friends Kate and Katherine, I took a fused glass workshop and made these plates. I gave the big one to my mom for Mother's Day and I kept the little one for myself. Now we have a matching set together.

I made myself a matching, smaller fused glass plate.

My doodles and experiments with paint, stitch and vintage fabric are continuing. I see these as sketches. They are a lot of fun to play with after a long day in the corporate salt mines.

Painted a grid in acrylics.

Playing with fill stitch. Here in French knots.

Watercolor paint, dripped ink and back stitch.

Headed to NYC next month to participate in another stitched art collaborative project created by artist Iviva Olenick. More to come on that wild, unique project!

Big Yes! Poltergeist, 2 times, by Amy Sheridan

Who else appreciates it when artists show their process? I love photos and posts about works-in-progress and geek out on sketches that lead to finished artwork.

By Amy Sheridan, 2012.

I was especially taken with these wonderful pieces by Amy Sheridan (a.k.a. Drop Dead Quirky.) The Poltergeist scene is such a strong, familiar cultural reference for so many of us. The way Amy rendered the creepy image of the little blond girl being lured into the TV into stitch is just masterful.

It was gorgeous stitching the first time she made it. But like many of us (ahem, me for example) Amy couldn't resist editing and re-imagining her work in a new piece. And she was generous enough to share both of them with us!

By Amy Sheridan, 2013.

Here is what she says about it.

What made you try this piece a second time?

When I made the first one, I had just learned how to do a French knot and wanted to do a piece that was mainly focused on that stitch. I knew I had the Hello World exhibition coming up and I thought it might be fun to do the piece over and see how much my stitching had changed in a year.

Can you tell us how your approach to the piece was different the second time around? Different stitches? How many strands did you use?

I used the same type of fabric and did most of the stitches in 3-strand. For the first piece, I used black only for the body of the TV. For the second one, I wanted to make the piece a little darker and give it more definition, so I used more black and solid outlines. I used only satin stitch as the fill stitch and I made the screen primarily white so it would give some more contrast against the black.

Be sure to visit Amy's shop and her flickr stream to see more of her twisted, clever, creative artwork.

Big yes, Amy!

"Big Yes!" is a blog feature where I share, with the artist’s permission, a piece of textile art that has opened my eyes to the possibility of what we can create.  When faced with things that are truly beautiful or moving or that fill me with awe, I try to say yes. More than that, Big Yes.

Big Yes! 99 Names of God by Sarah Sipe (with Q&A)

I’m fortunate enough to have many amazing, talented friends, both online and in 3D. Some of the coolest and most creative folks I know are fellow members of a fiber arts group called String Thing. Based in Durham, NC, we are a motley collection textile artists, spinners, weavers, knitwear designers, quilters and hobbyist knitters.

Sarah modeling her luminous 99 Names of God shawl.

Knitwear designer extraordinaire Sarah Sipe is one of that ultra talented crew. When I saw this immensely beautiful circular shawl she designed, I was blown away.

In the midst of the gorgeous lace are delicate glass beads in a mysterious series of patterns. What are those patterns? They are the 99 Names of God that Sarah translated into code. (Anyone who knows me know that I adore codes.) There is an almost alchemical magic to this shawl.

Mandala on Sarah's back.

For more about how she created this stunner, please read on.

Please describe the 99 Names of God scarf to us?

The 99 Names/Attributes of God are a Muslim devotional. The 99 names are said to be different characteristics of Allah which are meant to show all of God’s facets. It takes all of these attributes to come close to describing Allah (which is NOT one of the 99 attributes.) The 99 names are not codified. I chose a list off of wikipedia, which is very similar to the list of 99 on a print in my house.

The shawl is based off the Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi Shawl design, which creates a circular shawl by doubling the number of stitches on an increasingly large repeat of rows. I charted out my names and plugged them into the rows.

Each beaded pattern represents a coded name of god.

What was the inspiration for the scarf?

Naomi (a fellow String Thing member) was working with a friend on coding a Hebrew prayer into her Secret Code. At the same time, a group I'm in on Ravelry was running a Knit-A-Long of a pattern called Celestarium, which is a circular shawl that maps out the night sky as seen in the Northern Hemisphere. I was totally geeked out by both, and decided to combine all of my interests into one completely insane idea, combining a circular shawl, Arabic, and beads.

Taken from a "hamsa," (also known "Hand of Fatima")
detail of the lace edging.

Can you give us an example of one of the names of God and how you translated it into code and then the knit pattern? 

Each name begins with “al”, which simply means “the” in English. Thus, for example, one of the 99 attributes is “al-Rahman,” the Most Compassionate. I removed the “al” from each name, instead chosing to make a visual representation in the center of the shawl – in Arabic, “al” appears to look like two lines next to each other, making my center mandala look like four sets of “al”. Removing the “al” from each name made it so that each, rendered in Abjad numerals (each letter is assigned a number), tended to be less than 10 digits across. I made each name into a grid. “al-Rahman,” minus the “al,” becomes 200, 8, 40, 50. 

An example of Sarah's magical code.
I want to stitch it!

And then the math came in. The center mandala increases to 48 stitches by row 12. Row 13 begins the name charts, 5 in the first section, 10 in the next two sections, 20 in the next four, until I ran out in the final section. The lace on the edge is meant to look like a hamsa (also known as the Hand of Fatima), a symbol of protection used throughout the Middle East.

For Naomi's secret code advice, visit her blog.

As a knitwear designer, what are your favorite things to design? What inspires you to sit down a create your own patterns? For example, the natural world? Things you see in films? Books? How long have you been knitting, spinning, designing patterns?

I love designing shawls, especially shawls with secret meanings. My favorite published design is my Bull City Scarf, which has a hidden "D" for Durham in the lace. I find myself especially inspired by the city of Durham - everything from the shapes of the buildings downtown to the Eno flowing through my backyard. I'm also more than a little geeked by putting math into use in knitting.

Casually thrown over Sarah's shoulder.

Any projects in the works that you're particularly excited about?

I'm playing with math. Fibonacci sequence in particular. I'm also considering something inspired by some Frank Lloyd Wright shapes, after visiting my old Chicago stomping grounds recently. 

Sarah wearing her devotion shawl in Juline's garden.

************

So inspiring!!

You can purchase Sarah's designs on ravelry. I'm not a knitter, but I adore her Piedmont Slouch Hat (yes, that is a photo of me modeling the purple one.)

Big Yes to the insanely talented Sarah!

"Big Yes!" is a blog feature where I share, with the artist’s permission, a piece of textile art that has opened my eyes to the possibility of what we can create.  When faced with things that are truly beautiful or moving or that fill me with awe, I try to say yes. More than that, Big Yes.

Colorful WIPs Are All I Have

No, I have not slipped off the face of the Earth.

Experimenting with hexagons to make a mosaic ground fabric for a piece.

Just busy, happy. Traveling and working hard.

Making progress on Frame 11 for the X stitch animation collaboration
project for Aubrey Longley-Cook. 

These are some of the pieces in my hoops.  Lots of colors.

Trying 4-strand, charcoal chain stitch as "grout" for the mosaic ground fabric.

Big love, peeps. Holla!

Old Man Winter Assassinated!

That's my Springfield Shopper-inspired, spinning newspaper headline.

Weary selfie to stitch.

Viva Springtime!

And how do we mourn his passing? By living more intensely, dammit! Hence, this tired selfie, which I think may need to be translated into a stitched self portrait.

Stack of 100 Hardscrabble & Wondrous postcards for my
etsy shop.

Art, hiking, making photo cards, hanging with friends, eating delicious food around Durham, enjoying Spring... that's what is happening in my life at the moment. 

WIP: Frame 11 for the x stitch animation piece.

For example, I saw Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival last weekend. It's an amazing look at intersection of performance art, Punk, feminism, patriarchy and social media in the ever fascinating world of contemporary Russia. (Who wants to take a trip to Moscow with me??)

Magical hour at the Duke Forest.

Other wonderful experiences... I attended the Wangechi Mutu opening at the Nasher Museum. To say that Mutu's gorgeous collage work is inspiring is an understatement. 

Hiked for miles at Raven Rock State Park, where the terrain under the enormous rock face had a freaky, moon of Jupiter quality that was pleasantly disorienting. (Or maybe that was the effect of forgetting to eat properly before we left!) 

Sat ridiculously close to the ice at a Carolina Hurricanes game. They played dreadfully, but the spectacle was incredible fun on a cold, rainy night. 

Monuts Donuts. Eating my way through Durham's delicious food.

Sharing all of these experiences with people I care about makes my life delicious. Creativity flows more freely and making art feels richer and more real when it is intertwined with my love for the people in my life. 

Simple and corny as that sounds, mofos.