Daily Fiber

Haiku illustrated

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Laura Kate

So here is what has happened since you last checked in with the haiku project. I have transferred the image of the jaguar to fabric.

Using Jacquard Textile paint, I added the features and spots to this beast.

Next I hand embroidered the details, including eyes, ears, mouth, paws and whiskers.

Here are the fabrics I chose, in the general layout I wanted.

The next step was to embroider the haiku onto the dark green rectangle. It was important to me to replicate Henry’s handwriting as well as I could. I enlarged the original on the printer. Using chalked paper, I traced over the letters to mark them on the fabric. Then I embroidered the letters in white floss.

Finally I appliqued all of the pieces to the background fabric, machine-stitched around the raw edges, and embroidered the last few white whiskers on the cat. Here is the piece in its current state:

And here is a final close-up of the jaguar.

My original goal for this piece was to illustrate Henry’s poem, and to practice embroidering hand writing onto fabric. At the outset, I never expected to paint the fabric so much. But I’m glad I did it. I learned more about how to apply paint to fabric. And I ended up with a colorful and meaningful piece of fabric art.

hand embroidery, sewing

Henry’s Haiku

Posted on May 20, 2019 by Laura Kate

During a recent visit, my grandson handed me this post-it note containing a haiku that he had written.

Henry is a boy of few words, so I got almost no explanation on the source of these bonne mots. My husband reminded me that we had visited the zoo with Henry, and given him a camera to use. The poem may have been inspired by the sight of a jaguar cub. Here is a photo that my husband took that day at the zoo.

I am inspired by this poem and the photograph to make a fiber object featuring a white whiskered cat and Henry’s haiku. I’m planning to use applique and embroidery techniques. There is a very nice image in NatGeo of a jaguar cub in the jungles of Brazil with a good layout.

Here are some fabric options. I am thinking about using the color washed gold fabric as the background for the piece.

To be continued………….

hand embroidery, knitting

The Luna Moth Returns

Posted on May 19, 2019May 20, 2019 by Laura Kate

I’m finally getting back to the little knitted baby dress. After I became inspired by the Luna moth in my backyard, I decided to embroider a Luna on the green dress. I had finished knitting it a few weeks ago. Today I completed the embroidery. Here is the Luna moth image which served as my model.

And here is the baby dress from the front view.

My plan is to work the embroidery on the back of the dress. But first, I will need to reinforce the yarn so that it can support the embroidery stitches.

This is a very lightweight version of fusible interfacing. It actually flexes with the knitted fabric. Next I drew a pattern of the moth and pinned it to the dress.

I was forced to shorten the moth’s back wings, in order to fit the dimensions of the dress. To transfer this pattern to the dress I simply stitched all around it with white thread. The embroidery took a couple of hours. I tried to use colors that were true to nature. Here is a picture of the finished piece.

I’m sort of happy with my work. Perhaps after a night’s sleep, I will reconsider my choices, and make a few adjustments.

collage

Paper Week Finale

Posted on May 18, 2019September 28, 2020 by Laura Kate

Lately we have been hearing unflattering news about China – unfair trade practices, intellectual property theft, and so on. Today I want to be grateful for some of the good things we have received from the Chinese, such as Paper! And let’s not omit the art form of folding paper. The word origami is from Japan, but the Chinese were creating objects of folded paper as early as the 10th century. Today I am using The Art of Chinese Paper Folding, by Maying Soong for instruction in making my pieces. She explains that in China, paper objects are made with only a single sheet of paper and one’s hands. No pasting or cutting is permitted. “It is the most interesting, inexpensive and useful art for children and grownups.” For this project, I will be making two forms – pinwheels and birds. The bird form reminds me of seagulls. So my theme for this work is the beach. Here are some of the papers I am using. In addition to colored copy paper, I have 12 x 12 inch scrapbook sheets.

When my husband was a boy, he enjoyed making origami shapes, so I invited him to help. He measured and cut the majority of the paper that I am using. As I began to work, it started to rain. It was so peaceful, sitting and folding, listening to the rain hit the roof and the thunder rumble in the distance. What a satisfying project for a wet, somewhat cold day. After a few hours, I had folded all the pieces and laid them out ready for the installation.

**Pinwheels in warm colors, Birds in cool colors.** **I folded several sizes of each.**

The origami is installed across the east wall of my studio. It measures about eight feet wide by three feet tall. Photography was tricky. Bill took the wide-angle shot which you see at the top. Here are my photographs, including the approach to the piece while entering the room, the left side detail and the right side detail.