Posted in embellishing, hand embroidery, painting

Playing with Fiber Embellishments

Posted on by Laura Kate

Ever since I wove a small tapestry on a hand-made loom, I’ve mused about weaving threads over a water color painting. So today I am playing around with the idea.

I started with this 4 by 6 painting I did last December.

It’s an exercise from Kateri Ewing’s book Watercolor is for Everyone. After drawing two columns of randomly sized rectangles, the artist applies selected colors, reversing the order of application in the second column.

I thought this painting would be a good background for my proposed thread embellishment because of its rectilinear structure. To start, I poked holes at regular intervals along the outside vertical edges. Next I stitched a zigzag pattern across the painting with no. 3 cotton twist thread in a gold color.

Now what, I asked myself. How about creating points along the thread intersections by tying knots? Okay. For this step I chose a dark cool green shade.

To further reinforce the intersections, I painted shapes with a metallic paint.

Not a bad way to spend a quiet afternoon. It was soothing and meditative. It reminded me of those picture stitch cards that I worked as a girl when learning how to sew.

Now I have a brand new perspective on what is possible with paint and thread.

You can learn about Kateri Ewing’s work here:

My Books | Kateri Ewing

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One of six children, I was raised by a busy mom, who instilled in me a love of fabric. Though I learned to sew and knit at a young age, it was the arrival of my first grandchild that pushed me into action. A long-time knitter, I am now ready to explore all things fiber.

9 thoughts on “Playing with Fiber Embellishments”

  1. How different it looks in each picture. I like the simplicity of just the yarn lines in the 2nd picture. You still see the watercolours well I like the patterns. It’s an interesting exercise and how different they all look.

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