Teen Angst
5″ Diameter
Stitches: straight, cross, long-arm cross, satin, back
Materials: unbleached muslin, cotton DMC 6 strand embroidery floss, wooden hoop painted with acrylic paints

I love the Phat Quarter group on Flickr.  The range of work is really amazing, and the swaps — well they really challenge me.  The theme for the most recent swap was “movies.”   The past couple of swaps I’ve stayed well within my comfort-zone, design wise. The themes still let me do work that was spiritually focused, and make something appropriate for the swap. Here’s an example and here’s another example.

Yes, I could have done something from “The Ten Commandments” or something, but “Heathers” was the first movie that popped into my head and so I went with it. Thankfully, my swap partner’s favorite movies seemed to fit well with this choice.

I searched for lots of images from the film and found one of the dream sequence with Veronica’s (Winona Ryder) head sticking out of the grass and two croquet balls on either side of her. It was such a great image, I used it as the basis for the design. When I decided on the “My teen-angst bullshit now has a body count,” I switched out the balls used in the original photo for the ones that represent the two Heathers who die in the film.

I painted the hoop blue, which is Veronica’s color in the film. I also backed it with special fabric (other photo) that I thought worked well with the image.

Of course, I just realized that I spelled “angst” wrong in the piece.   Not only is the position of that word my least favorite thing in the execution, but there’s a typo.  D’oh!

Queen of Sheba
Size: 6″x6″
Stitches: Cretan Stitch, Bead Stitch, Couching
Materials: Black Dupioni Silk, Varigated Over-dyed Silk Floss, Peacock Feather, Glass Beads, Frieze/Bullion Gold/Silver Combination Thread, Peacock Feathers
Status: Collection of the Artist


More on Sheba

Benjamin Bunny
Size: 6″x6″
Stitches: Satin, Long & Short, Stem, Herringbone
Materials: Cotton Toile Fabric, Cotton Floss, Angora Floss
Status: Private Collection

This fun little confection is an embellished Toile original. I may make other pieces from this Beatrix Potter Toile, but not probably not this one again. All the embroidery is done entirely by hand. You can see other examples of my embellished Toile work on Flickr.

The finished piece has been stretched over a canvas frame, which is about 1″ deep. It’s deep enough to stand on it’s own on a shelf, or hang on the wall.

And…yes…his tail is angora.

[tags] embroidery, benjamin bunny, queen of sheba, fiber art, textile art, etsy, peacock feathers[/tags]