December 2009

I have some really great news to share with you! My trip to ANG Seminar in Milwaukee was a ‘winner’. In fact, my needlepoint canvas titled Chinese Drama Masks did win: Best of the Show, First Place (category Professional, Painted Canvas without Stitch Guide), Judges Choice and Delegate’s Choice. My wall of ribbons is growing and looks so great. Click here to see completed Chinese Drama Masks Completed Panel - 12" x 34", 18 mesh canvas I saw this canvas in Alex-Para's NeedleArts in St. Pete's, Florida and just had to have it! To me the eyes lead the way into the very soul of this exciting piece... The final three thumbnails show you enlargements of the areas around the middle mask. Each canvas had a 'working direction' that I choose to follow. The canvas showed me where I need to stitch in order to access the details without disturbing finished stitches. There was a logical stitch direction which can take a bit of calculating - but it's worth figuring out the best route for the best result.

I’ve written two articles about Chinese Drama Masks for Needlepoint Now Magazine. They can be found in issues May/June 2009 and September/October 2009.
Click here for link to subscribe or order back issues

You can see the wall of ribbons by viewing my DVD, “Needlepoint, Alive and on the Edge”.

This is a video exhibit of my needlepoint filmed in my home. If you enjoy the DVD, please forward to your friends.

Currently, I have so many canvases in work and on my design wall that I’m hesitant to count them. My biggest struggle seems to be organizing my thread stash.

My current works in progress are:

Ryan’s Tallis Bag will be my forth Tallis Bag. Ryan wanted to have the same Tallis Bag as his brother Jeremy.
I will stitch Ryan’s bag differently than Jeremy’s although the painted canvas is the same one.
You can read about my three complete Tallis Bags in Needlepoint Now Magazine, July/August 2009 issue.
Canvas available at www.thistleneedleworks.com

I would be pleased to have your contributions to Stitch - talk. Many of you have so much stitching knowledge and enthusiasm to add to the content of this newsletter.

Please check out the following:

Editor of Needlepoint Now has a question for us to ponder and inspire.

Why do you like to needlepoint? My friend Doreen Finkel posed this question on her blog recently (www.allthingsneedlepoint.com) and has received an overwhelming response from her readers. The answers were varied but the most stated that they needlepoint to relax and unwind after a stressful day. Stitching is a very calming activity that allows time to meditate. It connects one with the person who taught them to stitch. Many say they stitch whenever they get a few moments and take their stitching with them everywhere.

Stitching is a creative outlet as well as a way for me to relax and unwind. I try to stitch every evening even if it is just for a short period because it sooths me. Needlepoint is very therapeutic for many of us. To create something tactile is a basic need that many of us crave. Even when I am reproducing someone else’s design I feel that I am being creative.

Recently I asked my TARTS group (Thursdays Are Reserved To Stitch) how they perceived their needlepoint. I was surprised when many of my friends stated that they didn’t consider it an art form but felt that their work fell into the craft category. What is the difference?

I believe craft is based on a formula or recipe where all the participants follow the same direction with the same materials and end up with roughly the same result every time. Most crafts require a combination of skill and patience, but they can also be learned on a basic level by virtually anyone. On the other hand, an art activity is open-ended. Participants may start with the same materials and assignments but end up with totally different solutions. While the end result may not always be considered art, the possibility of creating an appealing design is always possible.

I rarely follow a pattern to the letter. I like to think of patterns as starting points with the challenge being to make the piece uniquely mine. By my art versus craft definition I am creating art. So I ask you, how do you view your needlepoint? Are you an artist or a craftsman? Think about it.

I recently attended the American Needlepoint Guild Seminar in Milwaukee, WI. There is always a juried exhibit of needlepoint at the seminar. This year Rosalyn Cherry-Soliel entered her Chinese Drama Masks that she has written about as recently as the September/October issue of Needlepoint Now. I am proud to report that she won not only the first place ribbon in her category, (professional, painted canvas without a stitch guide) but that she also won best in show.

Rosalyn takes her needlepoint very seriously and believes that her work is art and considers herself to be an artist. She stitches everyday, always striving to improve her techniques to better illustrate the design on the painted canvas. When I asked her why she views her work as art even when she often works on painted canvas, she replied, “We think of musicians as artists even though many of them are interpreting a composer’s music. Even though I am working on an image that was designed by another artist, I am interpreting the image though my media of threads and stitches on needlepoint canvas.”

I would like to congratulate Rosalyn on her ribbons and thank her for putting her work out there for all to enjoy. More of us should exhibit our work and share our art with other stitchers and non-stitchers.

I would like to thank all of you who sent me nice notes regarding my last letter where I expressed my discomfort in stitching in public. I am now armed with quick comebacks when someone asks me if I’m quilting or knitting. Instead of becoming self-conscious I will use the query as an opportunity to educate someone about my favorite pastime – needlepoint.

Anna Maria Salehar loves to search out the unusual in contemporary needlework.

Making needlework contemporary: Crossing boundaries

Over the centuries needlework fulfilled several roles. First, and foremost, it decorated: clothing, wall hangings, and linens. At times, embroidery was a gauge of artistry on a par with singing or mastering a musical instrument. And finally, stitching was a means to narrate dramatic events as early as the Middle Ages in Bayeux, France, or as recently as contemporary Ireland and South Africa.

I struggle with this legacy. Decoration. Artistry. Narrative. I continually ask: How can I create needlework in tune with contemporary taste, when today’s consumer documents events digitally; snaps up inexpensive purses, jeans, tee shirts, embroidered by slum children; lives in a styled house, sparsely furnished, free of decorative excess, save paintings so large that a single embroiderer could not render one in years?

Seek and ye shall find. Eureka! I think I have. The answer is gradually coming into focus since I discovered the work of two contemporary Dutch artists.

Michael Raedeker has been developing his technique in London since 1997. Before the Great Recession his canvases commanded six figures. Today, his work in on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London (www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/michael_raedecker.htm ) and the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. Raedeker is not an embroiderer. He sketches images in threads and cord of varying thickness. The images–-tables, houses, washing on a line--remain transparent on eerie backgrounds, built from washes of gray paint. The result is restrained, intriguing, and ethereal. The work is not about the stitches, which are, in fact, not of good quality. But Raedeker has drawn critical acclaim because of them. A biographer asserts that Raedeker fabricates, “the cinematic through a sophisticated sense of kitsch, these elements are often reinterpreted through the unlikely intimacy of craft materials and techniques.” So the mainstream art world seems to be saying, embroidery is kitsch unless it is re-interpreted. I don’t agree, but OK, let’s go with that thought. So we need to be large-scale? We need to be like unframed canvas? And we need to be monochromatic, mysterious, not pretty aquarelle on silk? Got that. But I personally can’t use acrylic paint as a mitigating technique for my embroidery; too messy for my house. Nor can I create 2m x 3m canvases. Couldn’t get one through my door. Does that mean I am relegated to producing “kitsch” in the eyes of contemporary art fans?

A second artist, I discovered, offers another path. Annette Van Waaijen (www.annettevanwaaijen.nl) is a photographer who embroiders her photos. She prints tasteful female nudes onto large linen canvases (43cmx63cm, 75cmx40cm) and then “clothes” them in lace or embroidered-on lingerie. These subjects may be a bit too avant-garde for some living rooms, but it’s the idea that counts. She has other themes. Photos of severe white and turquoise buildings are embellished with text added in restrained sampler script. A snapshot of a caravan sports a stitched antenna and a line of billowing wash created from hanky lace and gossamer fabric tacked onto the canvas. This technique may be much more adoptable by traditional embroiders like me. Take a photo of something/someone appealing, have it printed on a good-sized canvas frame. Stitch up a part of it to highlight, using back stitch, long stitches, or french knots, and voila - a modern adaptation of narrative embroidery done. Might just give it a go. But maybe I could go one step further? I wonder what large photographs of embroideries printed onto large canvas would feel like? Certainly gives one food for thought.

You can reach Anna Maria via her website www.artembroidery.nl or at amsalehar@yahoo.com

Our newest member of the Guest Gallery is Cara Sue Richard

Cara Sue is a creative and innovative stitcher! Read about how Cara Sue embellishes her canvases with holes! Become inspired to stretch your limits in needlepoint.

It is time once again for another Top 10 list. Time sure flies when you are stitching!

Here are 10 things that I found of interest for this issue

1. ANG is offering some really nice cyberclasses and correspondence courses for more information go to: www.needlepoint.org/CyberWorkshop/GatheredIn/GatheredIn.php

2. Registration is now open for Dresden Patchwork with Jane Ellen Balzuweit through the Shining Needle Society. SNS is also offering Angulations II with Jane Zimmerman. For more information check out the Shining Needle Society’s Yahoo Group.

3. While at Seminar in Milwaukee I went on a field trip to a fabulous needlepoint shop in North Chicago. It is called North Shore Needleworks. They have a fabulous selection of threads. They do very prompt mail-order and are very nice to work with. Their site is northshoreneedleworks.com

4. Fireside Stitchery has an Amanda Lawford Trunk Show on right now. Their website is www.firesidestitchery.com

5. Traditional Stitches is offering a new club called the Society of Soie Surfine. It is well worth checking this out at www.traditionalstitches.com

6. Theresa of Homestead Needlearts in Grand Blanc, Michigan is offering some very interesting clubs. Check them out at www.homesteadneedlearts.com

7. While at the ANG Seminar I came across M’s Canvashouse. It is a fabulous shop in Lexington, Kentucky. They were the in-house shop at Seminar. They do mail order and stock just about anything that you would ever need. Their site is www.mscanvashouse.com

8. Amy Wolfson of Amybear Designs has two new counted canvaswork charts available - Fascination and Elizabeth Victoria. Both are breathtaking. Check them out at www.berks.com/amybear

9. Pocket Full of Stitches of Lubbock, Texas has 3 trunk shows coming up. A collection of designs from October 1 - 24, Rebecca Wood from October 31 to November 21 and Raymond Crawford from January 9 - 23, 2010 www.pfos.com

10. Mindy’s Needlepoint Factory has a slew of new painted canvases available. Check them out at www.mindysneedlepoint.com

Well these are my “ramblings” for this issue. If you come across a find or have any questions, please contact me at lorene.salt@sympatico.ca. Till next time... Happy Stitching!

The more stitching I do, the more I realize the value of good technique. Needlepoint is not a quick art form. The only way to move along quickly is to move steadily. One can only move steadily when the art form is satisfying and the results are pleasing. One needs to understand where to move along the canvas.

I like to work with stretcher bars and my Lowry stand.

I do not have knots on the back of my work although teachers are now saying that knots are okay.

To my mind, what happens on the back of the canvas influences the result on the front of the canvas. The finisher/framer cannot produce a good result with bumps on the back of your stitching.

My nine year old grandson knows how to do a ‘way knot’ and a ‘way tail’and so can you. It’s worth the extra effort.

If you’d like to write a short article about needlepoint for stitch - talk, please submit by Jan. 10, 2010.

Would you like to exhibit just one finished canvas rather than a Guest Gallery page?

Please submit a digital image with details of canvas size, materials used, source of inspiration by Jan. 10, 2010.

We all learn from each other. ‘Needlepoint by Committee’ has helped me to get to my level of creative expression. Many thanks to my stitching friends and needlepoint shop owners for the critique and assistance that they provide for me. These wonderful friends have helped me to select colors and threads, chose stitches, they proof read my articles and edit my cyber class. The best part is that we can laugh and play together. If it hadn’t been for my stitching friends, my Tallis Bags would not have a stitched ‘back’ and Chinese Drama Masks would have lacked the variety of bubble details. Thanks to Leni and Leslie for their ideas. Include others in your creations and become involved in theirs.

Stitchamaze yourself!

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