Jennifer Vs. Valentine’s Day

I have always disliked Valentine’s Day.  It has nothing to do with being single, even when I have been in relationships, much to most of my past boyfriends’ relief,  I have had no interest in celebrating it – mostly for the usual reasons people hate the holiday. But this year I decided to not be such a spoilsport. I made valentines for anyone who was interested in receiving one although I insisted they all be mailed. I had originally planned on making some simple paper cards but I am obviously incapable of making anything easy and before I knew it I was making valentine embroideries for everyone.   I don’t really feel comfortable in the realms of cute and romantic, so I did my best but ended up with a bit of a science/anatomical/nerd overtone in most of them.

Self Portrait at Sea

This is my favorite of the self-portrait series I did. The hair is made up mostly of back stitch with touches of stem and split stitches to create the texture. It is probably 8-10 shades of brown.  I did the water all in split stitch. I have a hard time clocking the hours I spend working, but it took me about a month to do the water.

It is the first piece I have used watercolor crayons to do a wash on. I am slightly disappointed only in the fact that I think the blue wash isn’t visible under the blue stitching.

Self Portrait with Tentacle

In the past few months while working on this self portrait series I started researching for an upcoming project of embroidered hentai, so I ended up viewing a whole lot of tentacle pornography.  No. Really. A lot.  Anyone who has ever delved into that world has surely seen the classic japanese woodcut,  The Dream of The Fisherman’s Wife.  While not the most original, I do enjoy my take on devouring instead of being penetrated by the monster.

I had a lot of fun making the appliqued tentacle. The face is embroidered, washed with watercolor pencils and then appliqued.  I am starting an applique series of industrial accidents, so I am super excited about the fun of applique. I absolutely love embroidery and it is my first passion, but my pieces take so very long that applique is a refreshingly (and comparatively) quick respite from the sometimes tedious work of detailed needle art.

Self Portrait Series Pt 2: Log Lady

I am still recovering from the last minute stresses of my show this past weekend, but I managed to get some photos taken of the pieces.
Even though I keep trying to swear off Twin Peaks inspired embroidery, I find myself here, yet again. I did a series of self portraits and still somehow worked it in.

 

Also the obligatory detail shots, because they are like stitch-porn to me.

 

 

Twelve Ways to Sunday

I was lucky enough to be asked to embroider the art for the movie poster of the amazing documentary Twelve Ways to Sunday by the wonderful Anna Farrell.  Anna came across my Twin Peaks portraits on Feeling Stitchy and got in touch with me through my blog (seriously, I can’t believe how awesome this is.)  It took about four months to do and I recently finished up this project.  I can’t explain how much I love this piece. These photos are mostly in progress shots and Anna sent me a photo of the entire finished piece.

Please go check out Twelve Ways to Sunday. It is worth it,  I promise. There will be posters and such for sale and word on the street is that there will be a limited edition fabric print.

The premier is in NYC on Sept. 22 as part of the Rooftop Film series.  So, if you are in there area you should go check it out. If not, I am sure I will be keeping everyone abreast on future screenings, as I am so excited about this.

Stumpwork Banners Pt 1

When I started my first few attempts at stumpwork for my last art show I seriously had no idea what I was getting myself into. I started off with some zombie pieces that ended up being so complex that I am still working on them 5 months later…with no end in site. When I finished my first few needle lace trees I honestly cried because it was so slow and frustrating. While I eventually got faster at making needle lace, I would by no means say I’ve mastered it. The banners I ended up showing are mostly wired needlelace, they also included applique, traditional embroidery and hand beading (I had never beaded either, ugg.) Here are some details of of the first banner, the center oval containing the skeleton measures roughly 1′X2′.

Robot Napkins

I made these napkins a few months ago for the wedding of Annie Bradley and Mercury McCall.  They approached me about making some napkins with a robot holding a heart embroidered on them and I, of course, was flattered and immediately  accepted.  They picked out the fabric and I got to work.

After a few attempts embroidering onto the napkin itself, I decided the best way would be an applique.  So I started sewing napkins and embroidering robots and attaching appliques.

Their wedding looked like tons of fun and I hear the napkins were a big hit.  Congratulations!
If you would like to check out their art you can find it at Annie Bradley Art.  Word on the street is that they may be working on an animation of one of my favorite plays, “Ubu Roi” by Alfred Jarry.  I would like to encourage them to continue.  You should too.

Birds Pt 1

A year or so ago I was perusing Joe Milutis’s amazing blog New Jersey as an Impossible Object and came across this video.  I found it riveting and starting looking into bird mnemonics…you know, for fun.  I recently starting thinking about them again and embroidering birds.  I hope to start a project combining embroidery and mnemonics, but that will have to wait.  In the meantime here is an Eastern Bluebird that I finished up.

Twin Peaks Embroidery V – Killer BOB, The Giant and The Log Lady

This is the last post of Twin Peaks Embroidery from my current show.

These are all fairly large, Bob and the Giant are 2×3 and the Log Lady is slightly larger.

I used all 6 strands of floss included in the standard Embroidery floss pack, so the stitching is pretty thick. They are all done in stem and chain stitches.  After I was finished embroidering on the cotton I stretched them over canvases and used spray adhesive to secure them.

This is ten solid hours of knot work on Bob’s beard. I struggled a long time with how to do the stubble, as I knew the knots would take me forever, eventually I could not come up with any other viable options and gave in to the knots. Oh, colonial knots, thousands of colonial knots.

I kind of hated the one for the Giant, until I got it on the canvas. Now it’s my favorite of the large pieces.

Now to go work on tiny, tiny patches (one inch) of  Twin Peaks character…. is this my new fate… bleeding fingers for Twin Peaks?

Twin Peaks Embroidery IV – Nadine and James Hurley

I am still trying to get all of my Twin Peaks portraits posted. So, here are the latest two, Nadine and James Hurley.

Nadine has always been one of my favorite characters, so it was incredibly fun to work on. Her hair was my absolute favorite thing I did on any of these.

I think James is by far one of the most boring Twin Peaks characters. (Sorry James fans…if there are any.) I felt like he is just such a key character, however that I needed to include him on the first round of pieces. (I feel the same was about Donna…does anyone actually like Donna?) And poor James Marshall is just a strange looking fellow, so I had the hardest time with his face.

I was really excited about how is jacket turned out. I used the same technique as Audrey’s sweater, a tightly packed modified colonial knot and finished off the sleeves with alternating satin stitches.